July 18, 2023
Africa: 2023 Montreal International Jazz Festival
The Festival International de Jazz de Montreal (FIJM) returned in its 43rd edition in full swing (and shuffle, backbeat, Afrobeat, and even ¾ time). It's been three years… Read more »
Africa: Oumou Sangare and Vox Sambou At Celebrate Brooklyn
On Friday, July 14, bookended between well-timed tropical downpours, a remarkable concert went down at Celebrate Brooklyn in Prospect Park. Oumouy Sangare, pioneer of Mali's… Read more »
July 13, 2023
Africa: More Afropop Top Videos - Teni, Mokoomba, Blick Bassy, Dub Inc, Sophie Lukacs
Here are five new Top Afropop videos to get you through another ultra-hot 2023 July weekend. We start off with something on the cool side. Cameroonian maverick Blick Bassy has a… Read more »
June 30, 2023
Africa: Afropop Closeup Podcast Season 8 Begins July 4
As podcast subscribers and listeners know, the Afropop Closeup podcast series, hosted by individual producers, is a place where we go beyond the music into politics, religion,… Read more »
June 29, 2023
Africa: The Sierra Nevada World Music Festival Rides Again
More than a few reggae fans thought they'd never see another edition of the Sierra Nevada World Music Festival, the Northern California event, which for 25 editions had become… Read more »
June 21, 2023
Africa: Rumba By the Connecticut River
It started with an email from Pastor Steven Jungkiet of the Old Lyme Congregational Church in Old Lyme, Connecticut. Steven was inviting us to two weekend events featuring… Read more »
Mali: 'Songlines Is Delighted to Offer Free Access to Our April 2023 Issue to Afropop Listeners!
In this issue, our cover star was late master Malian guitarist Ali Farka Touré - we spoke to Oumou Sangaré, his son Vieux and other friends and acolytes to find out… Read more »
June 15, 2023
Nigeria: Dap the Contract New EP PW3RS Hits the Ground Running
It doesn't happen often but a few weeks ago, Nigerian artist and lawyer Dolapo Akinkugbe, AKA DAP The Contract, a producer, rapper, singer, classical pianist, and videographer… Read more »
June 12, 2023
Africa: New Afropop Top Videos - June 12
We've just added eleven new videos to the Afropop Top Video Playlist on YouTube. As usual, some amazing music and visuals here. There's new work by Siselabonga of South Africa,… Read more »
June 07, 2023
South Africa: BCUC Shakes Up South African Music
BCUC has to be one of the more unusual bands to emerge from South Africa's alternative music scene in recent years. Not amapiano or gqom or hip-hop, and certainly no throwback to… Read more »
May 31, 2023
Ghana: John Collins Lecture On Ghana's Musical History
Longtime listeners to Afropop Worldwide, particularly our coverage of music from Ghana, will know of Professor John Collins. John's English father taught in Ghana and John spent… Read more »
Malawi: Keturah Brings Malawi Roots to the World Stage
Keturah is a young singer from Malawi with a cherry-sweet voice and an easy gift for songwriting. Her journey from a small village to a Los Angeles recording studio, where she… Read more »
May 25, 2023
South Africa: The South African Bongeziwe Experience in Mexico
There are few artists who can manifest magic by being in the right place, at the right time, with the right people: that was the Bongeziwe experience in Mexico. Read more »
May 19, 2023
South Africa: South African Bongeziwe Mabandla Releases Fourth Studio Album, Amaxesha
The whole Bongeziwe experience is conceptual in nature in the vein of The Miseducation of Lauren Hill, from an artist he is deeply inspired by. However Bongeziwe is a completely… Read more »
May 18, 2023
Africa: Gotopo's Afro-Indigenous Future Vision
Gotopo is an Afro-Venezuelan artist living in Berlin. She was born in Caracas and began her formal musical training in Barquisimeto, home of a renowned musical conservatory. She… Read more »
May 16, 2023
Zimbabwe: Bantu Spaceship Remakes Zimbabwean Roots Pop
Bantu Spaceship is a new act out of Harare, Zimbabwe, an Afro-futuristic project with deep ties in the past of the country's popular music. Producer Joshua Madalitso Chiundiza cut… Read more »
May 11, 2023
Mali: Tinariwen to Release New Album May 19 and Launch Tour May 27
In 2022, Mali's pioneering Tuareg rock band, Tinariwen, had to cancel their 20-date North American tour at the last moment due to visa issues. After more than a month of effort,… Read more »
May 05, 2023
Africa: Afropop Top Videos - Gotopo, Toumani and Kayhan, Eliades Ochoa, and More!
Fantastic new videos keep flooding in at Afropop Central. Here's a new set to brighten your weekend. Read more »
Mozambique: The Sound of Masks Reveals Tiago Correia-Paulo - Mozambican Composer and Music Producer
The 15th season of AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange, the documentary series of vibrant stories from across the African diaspora from Black Public Media and WGBH's WORLD… Read more »
April 25, 2023
Africa: Remembering Harry Belafonte
It is impossible to overstate the enormity of the loss. Harry Belafonte has been an icon of global entertainment and social activism for longer than most of us have been alive. His… Read more »
Congo-Kinshasa: Congo Day in New York City - Lokassa and Kokoko
The death of veteran Congolese guitarist Lokassa Ya M'Bongo in March sent shockwaves through the global Congolese music community, perhaps especially in the New York City area,… Read more »
April 24, 2023
Mali: Nick Gold On Ali Farka Toure's Posthumous Release, Voyageur
When I reached Nick Gold, the creator of World Circuit records, by Zoom in London, he had recently returned from a trip to Mali and Senegal, his first visit there in years. He… Read more »
April 19, 2023
Africa: Afropop Worldwide Rivers Project At the Kennedy Center
Last year, when the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, asked Afropop Worldwide to curate and produce an evening of music with the theme of African rivers, it didn't take long to… Read more »
April 17, 2023
South Africa: The Rebirth of Jonathan Butler - New Album Ubuntu
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April 14, 2023
Africa: Georges Collinet and Banning Eyre Host Afropop the African Rivers Project At the Kennedy Center
Final rehearsals with the newly coined Niger River Ensemble are underway for the bid show tomorrow at the Eisenhower Theater, The Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.. The evening of… Read more »