Eight months into 2024, Rwanda’s entertainment industry is thriving, drawing global celebrities to Kigali for exciting weekend events. Since January, at least 30 major shows have taken place in the capital and established areas like Rubavu, mostly featuring international acts. As a result, local musicians are often relegated to opening for foreign performers, hence, receiving a smaller cut. This, according to one Kigali-based partygoer, Andrew Mugisha, has been the case since 2021 when public gatherings resumed. However, local promoters have shifted their focus from West Africa to South Africa, where amapiano has gained global popularity, attracting large audiences to daily shows in major cities like Cape Town, Tokyo, Ibiza, and New Delhi. ALSO READ: How Amapiano won hearts of Rwandan music lovers The viral amapiano genre has also garnered a huge fanbase in Rwanda, influencing the party scene of Kigali, as well as attracting top South African DJs and artistes to perform at local events almost every month. Last week, six world-renowned musicians performed in Rwanda, among them were the South African DJ duo Tag Team, and Blaq Diamond, also from South Africa. Chley, an electronic musician from South Africa who features on Diamond Platnumz’s hit song ‘Komasava’, and South African artistes TitoM and Yuppe, the brains behind the ‘Tshwala Bam’ song, are also expected to headline various shows in town before the week’s end. “It is almost impossible to go out and not listen to three or four trending amapiano songs playing loud in the club. The people love it, and so do the DJs. It is an amapiano era and we are enjoying it just like we did when afrobeats was here,” Mugisha recently told The New Times. In 2019, amapiano emerged as one of Africa’s ‘hottest’ exports. It is the latest South African music genre to see its artistes on the global stage, with streams outside of sub-Saharan Africa growing more than 563% on Spotify in the past three years, and with over one billion global all-time streams to date, according to the streaming service. There are no professional amapiano DJs or artistes in Rwanda, but the sound is currently sweeping across the country and dominating playlists of local DJs who have mastered other genres of music like dancehall, afrobeats, hip-hop, and more. Bruce Intore, a Rwandan promoter associated with successful events featuring South African stars like Uncle Waffles and the late Costa Titch, said the popularity of the amapiano genre in Rwanda motivates event planners to select South African DJs and artistes as headliners for local concerts. ALSO READ: Uncle Waffles thrills Amapiano lovers of Kigali For example, Intore said, there is always an amapiano song that is trending globally, which makes it easy for DJs and artistes who produce this kind of music to draw crowds to any event they headline. This is why South African disc jockey Uncle Waffles drew thousands of revellers to the second edition of Intore Sundays, held at Mez Park in Kigali on May 8, 2022. Affordability matters in event planning For Intore, most of the South African artistes who headline local shows are young and “more affordable” than other established African artistes, but they also put on big shows. “Amapiano is really taking over now, but if I’m honest, most of the artistes that are coming are young and more affordable than most of the established Nigerian artistes,” he said, adding, “Nigerian prices are crazy.” For example, he noted that Nigeria’s Asake asks over $400,000 per gig, while Rema—from the same country—charges close to a million US dollars, leaving promoters with no choice but to go for “affordable” South African DJs. The likes of Uncle Waffles, Tyler ICU, Vigro Deep, and many other top amapiano DJs charge between $15,000 and $24,999 to perform. ALSO READ: Why ‘Gakondo’ might be the future of Rwandan music While South African music’s dominance in Rwanda may overshadow local artistes at concerts, the global rise of African music genres remains a source of pride for the continent. As West Africa’s afrobeats captured global attention in the late 2000s and amapiano took over dancefloors worldwide, there is optimism that Rwandan music will follow suit.
