When I'm on my travels to work or out socialising with friends, the one genre of music that makes me smile and fills my day on a positive level is listening to the sounds of Afrobeats. There is something about this genre of music that spells happiness, sunshine, history of African culture that fascinates my soul and gives me a buzz. I've been in love with this music for the past several years and each year it has grown and grown into this massive most-talked-about, global genre of mainstream music. Half the time I can not pronounce some of the chanted vocals or don't have the foggiest idea what some of the artists are talking about in their lyrics, but one thing I do understand is the passion and appreciation for West African culture and sharing the energy with everyone in its path.
With its attractive influences and combination between Afropop, R'n'B, Reggae and Jazz music, who would want to put down their earphones and listen to something else. It's a sound you don't want to ignore which leads me to the conversation of last Saturday night when I was at Wizkid Starboy Fest concert at the O2 Arena.
Everyone in the crowd including my cousin and I were in our element watching the amazing performances from various artists such as Eugy, Afro B, Ms Banks, Skiibii, Maleek Berry, Tiwa Savage and many more. All popular classics you can think of were performed such as the amazing Drogba "Joanna" from Afro B, Maleek Berry's "Kontrol" and many other famous tracks we couldn't get enough, but we were all waiting for the glowing, electrifying performance from the Starboy King himself Wizkid and it was incredible.
This was not the concert to be sitting down in your seats, it was the concert to get up, sing, chant, scream but more importantly, dance the night way and oh my lord, we both made sure of that. He played all our favourite tracks such as "Fever", "Ojuelegba", "Come closer", the song "Soco" he left as the last tune to perform and it ended the night smoothly. The crowd was on a high boost of energy and gleaming with extreme excitement, but what did it for me was the ultimate surprise of Burna Boy himself appeared on the glittering stage singing classics such as "Anybody", "Dangote", "Omo" and my personal favourite "Killin Dem". The sound of the percussion instruments, ragging loud beats, thumping drums, the crowd was stunned and amazed all at the same time, it made our night.
One thing Wizkid repeatedly mentioned is "Tonight is not all about Wizkid, it's about African music". It was a celebratory event, highlighting the brilliance of West African culture and even though
the crowd contained different nationalities from all corners of the globe, the music helped us unite as one family and that's how it should be. It was Afronation Portugal all over again, "unite as one love, one family".
Wizkid
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