Nairobi — The Fifa World Cup 2010 is over, but Canadian-based Somali hip hop artiste K'Naan lives on. He has topped charts in over 16 countries, bringing new hope to African artistes looking for an international breakthrough.

By last week his, World Cup song, Waving Flags, was the biggest selling hip hop song in the world, topping 20 out 22 charts dedicated to that genre.

It had also been adopted in 16 countries. The song has topped the digital music charts and stood at number 15 on the Billboard charts in 34 weeks of release.

News coming through Jamaican media reported last week that Damian Marley, the son of legend Bob Marley, had invited K'Naan to Tuff Gong Studios for a second album titled Troubadour.

All this makes K'Naan the biggest African artiste at the moment.

Other stars

Other African stars in recent memory include Kenya's St. James (aka Jimmy Gicho) and Nigeria's Doctor Alban, both of whom made their careers in Stockholm.

Like K'Naan, both blurred their Africanness with recordings that leaned towards the Euro disco sound.

Other Africans in the international dance music scene in the 90s are Malian artiste Mory Kante with Yeke Yeke and Cameroonian star Wes Modibo with Alane while Senegal's Youssour N'Dour made it big with the single 7 Seconds, a duet with British pop artiste Neneh Cherry.

K'Naan's exposure during the World Cup was his vehicle to glory.

The question is what this portends for African music looking for success in the global market.

Admittedly Waving Flags is a good song by an African artiste, but is not an African song as such.

By contrast Shakira's song Waka Waka (Its time for Africa) may have had much more Africannes to it, although it adopted the western pop sound.

While South African showcased its music talent during the World Cup, the rest of Africa will have to do a lot more.

International music business is extremely complex. Its about music, image and, most of all, timing.

Youssour Ndour, Mory Kante, Wes Mudibo who have not had international success since their ground-breaking hits.

They rode on the wings of European producers with Ndour being pushed by British pop star Peter Gabriel, while Kante and Mudibo was the product of Sanchez, who also did Deep Forest.

Paul Simon's Graceland album of 1989 may have opened a career path for Black Mambazo, but not in the overwhelming magnitude that had been anticipated.

In fact the jazz scene has been more accommodating.

African examples in this vein include Hugh Masekela, who worked with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, while Manu Dibango was largely a hit with Soul Makossa because of his jazz connection.