The eighth All-Africa Music Awards, AFRIMA, brought together musical titans in Dakar, Senegal on Sunday to honour and promote the best established and up-and-coming musicians from the continent.
During the main awards event at the 15,000-seat Dakar stadium, internationally renowned performers including Senegalese maestro Youssou Ndour, Nigerian musicians P-Square, and Tiwa Savage are among those scheduled to play.
Espoir La Tigresse, a Gabonese musician and AFRIMA nominee, was one of the lavishly attired attendees posing on the red carpet before the ceremony.
“I’m wearing a head mask from my tribe in Gabon representing a traditional dance from my village to show that I’m proud of my culture and wanted to share it with the people here today,” she told newsmen, wearing a black gown and a headpiece decorated with long straw-like fronds that hid most of her face.
In recent years, certain African singers have enjoyed record sales and sold-out performances across the continent, as well as in the United States and some regions of Europe, because to the widespread appeal of modern genres like Afrobeats, where performers sing and rap over electronic backing tracks.
“This is such an exciting moment in African music, and we are proud of the way these artists have been able to cross over to several markets both on the home front and even globally,” said AFRIMA President Mike Dada ahead of the ceremony.
Businesses are taking advantage of the growing interest in African music worldwide. While music streaming services like Spotify have worked to increase their selection of works by African artists, Universal Music Group (UMG.AS) launched a label for independent African labels and artists in June of last year.