Amanpiano: Taking Africa by Storm

In 2020, the South African sound ‘Amapiano’ began to grow beyond the borders of the country, into other African countries.

The name Amapiano is the Zulu translation for ‘The Piano’, a sound that combines deep house, jazz and lounge music that are characterized by synths, airy pads and wide percussive basslines. It solely focuses in piano melodies that are high-pitched.

While the origin of Amapiano is not defined or attached to a particular name, MFR Souls, a South African musical duo were the ones that popularized and named the genre ‘Amapiano’. Prior to that time, it was known as ‘number’.

During the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown, Amapiano rose to dominating the airplay especially with the help of Tiktok social media challenges that has many people dancing to this outdoor related genre from their homes.

South African house superstar, Busiswa, said this is the first time a South African genre dominated their own airplay rather than international songs.

South Africa now has many of their superstars line Focalistic, Kabza De Small, Busiswa, Killer Kai, MFR Souls, Young Stunna and others that are selling their sounds to the world and Nigeria has slowly incorporated Amapiano into their own sound- Afrobeat. Amapiano is not sung in English but some Nigerian artistes have managed to fuse in English and other Nigerian native languages like Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa into the sound. Many Nigerians have even managed to have top charting songs with the genre.

Some examples include Goya Menor’s Ameno Amapiano Remix, Yaba Buluku by DJ Tarico featuring Buruna Boy, High By Adekunle Gold featuring Davido, Feel Good by Mohbad , Ozumba Mbadiwe by Reekado Banks, Skelele by Bad Boy Timz featuring Olamide, KPK (Ko Pot Ke) by Rexxie featuring Mobhad, Coming by Busiswa featuring Naira Marley, Champion Sound By Davido featuring Focalistic; and many others.

Nigerian artiste, Fireboy DML said in an interview that Amapiano is not just a trend like most people think, but a culture. True to this, the South African have shown us that Amapiano is a culture and they are ready to share their culture with the world.

Listen to Yaba Buluku By DJ Tarico Featuring Burna Boy