All hail, queens! Spotify Wrapped reveals 2024’s musical highlights with female trailblazers proving the power of women’s voices in Africa — and beyond.
Making way for Africa’s current and future stars
Artists, fans and creators have ensured that 2024 goes down as a record-breaking, culture-making year with genres like Afrobeats and Amapiano lighting up Sub-Saharan stages and streaming, impacting international trends and inspiring rich cultural conversations.
“One of the year’s key developments is the star-studded success of female artists — women who break boundaries, and support an increasingly inclusive and diverse future for African music,” says Phiona Okumu, Spotify’s Head of Music, Sub-Saharan Africa.
Female artists feel the love
When it comes to Sub-Saharan Africa’s most streamed female artists there’s no overlooking the allure of Nigerian icons. Grammy-nominee Arya Starr blazed a celestial trail with her hit album The Year I Turned 21, her worldwide tour, and her fearless red- carpet style.
Starr’s soulful Afropop meets R&B sound made her the most streamed female songstress in her home country as well as Ghana and Kenya. Ghanaians also loved their very own Gyakie, who was the 4th most streamed artist in her home country.
Tems took the second spot in Nigeria and Ghana and the fourth spot in Kenya. Nigeria not only produces but also supports talent. The country’s most streamed female artists after Arya Starr and Tems include Tiwa Savage, Bloody Civilian, and Spotify EQUAL artists Qing Madi, Simi, and Fave.
The EQUAL programme is a global initiative to drive equity and amplify the voices of women through global and local playlisting and off-platform promotion. 200 EQUAL ambassadors have been supported in the programme’s four-year span.
From Africa to the world
Female artists were essential to helping Afrobeats spread its reach in 2024. Among their achievements: Multi-award winner Tems, who’s collaborated with Rihanna and Beyonce
among others, performed at the Netherlands’ legendary North Sea Jazz Festival while
her song Love Me Jeje ranked No. 20 on the Rolling Stone Top 100 Song List for 2024.
Popiano superstar Tyla secured the highest number of awards at the 2024 BETs plus three nominations for the 2024 MTV EMAs. Her album TYLA placed in the top 10 list of countries like Rwanda, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Tanzania, Uganda, Barbados and Jamaica.
African women are making waves all over the globe from more than 200K plays of her Born in the Wild album in Tokyo, Tems is taking Afrobeats to all corners of the world and more than 2M plays for Ayra Starr’s The Year I Turned 21 says the ladies are alright.
Spotify is excited to celebrate the progress of Africa’s women artists, but the data shows that there is still work to be done to see more representation of these powerhouse creators in the top lists.
For more detailed data, see below:
Top List Female Artists across different countries
Nigeria Ghana Kenya South Africa
1 Ayra Starr Ayra Starr Ayra Starr Taylor Swift
2 Tems Tems SZA Billie Eilish
3 Qing Madi SZA Rihanna SZA
4 Billie Eilish Gyakie Tems Rihanna
5 SZA Rihanna Billie Eilish Beyonce
6 Tiwa Savage Adele Nicki Minaj Nkosazana Daughter
7 Bloody Civilian Qing Madi Taylor Swift Babalwa M
8 Rihanna Tiwa Savage Ariana Grande Ariana Grande
9 Simi Nicki Minaj Doja Cat Summer Walker
10 FAVE Beyonce Beyonce Nicki Minaj
EQUAL is Spotify’s global initiative that promotes the work of women in the music industry through playlists, networking opportunities, and increased visibility.
Top EQUAL Artists in Africa Rank Artist
1 Tyla
2 Ayra Starr
3 Amaarae
4 Qing Madi
5 FAVE
6 Simi
7 Gyakie
8 Yemi Alade
9 Makhadzi
10 Teni