Spotify’s heat campaign celebrates african dance music culture

Parades Focalistic, Fuse ODG, Olamide, Others

As a way of celebrating the power of African voices across the continent and beyond, Spotify is shining a spotlight on one of its flagships, curated playlists African Heat, through an interactive campaign that brings the spirit of Africa alive around the world.

The campaign journeys through a series of partnerships, activations, a dance challenge video (#africanheatchallenge), and more creative content opportunities that will play out through on-and-off-platform initiatives on local, regional, and international levels. Highlighting the diversity of African talent, the playlist is an explosion of Afro-centric sounds, carving out space for African creators to showcase their music to a global audience.

Centred on the key role that the Afro-dance community has played in spreading African pop music across the globe, the campaign includes the likes of Focalistic, Fuse ODG, Olamide, as well as some of the leading female faces of dance music in Africa – Moonchild Sanelly, Sho Madjozi, Niniola, and Amapiano’s Lady Du.

“Dance culture has helped my music spread outside of the continent. Music and dance go hand in hand,” said Olamide.

By including emerging and established artistes alongside one another – Amapiano’s newer artistes Focalistic and Lady Du together with Azonto dance genre pioneer Fuse ODG and Shaku Shaku street dance driver, Olamide – Spotify is showcasing its dedication to and investment in all artistes.

The beautifully shot clip was directed by the talented, award-winning, Johannesburg-based Zandi Tisani, who uses her experience to draw attention to her work in edgy and bold ways. Set to Focalistic’s hit Ke Star, the clip encourages fans to immerse themselves in the sounds of the playlist, delving into the language of dance to express the connection between African communities worldwide that share a love of dance music.

The video features dancers from major cities in Africa and across the globe, including local sensation Kamo Mpela, Nigeria’s Boluwatife, Ghana’s DWP Academy, and more, as they move through the streets of their cities doing the #africanheatchallenge.

This is not the first collab between Spotify and Focalistic who, as one of Spotify’s RADAR AFRICA artistes, has already benefited from the support that the program promises to artists across all stages of their career development. The African Heat campaign is another example of how Spotify continues to showcase and support African talent.

“My music is an honest expression of who I am and where I come from, Pitori! I am the voice of the hood! I am the voice of the YOUTH! I want to take my voice to the world and Spotify is helping me do that. With my recent DaVido collab on the Ke Star (Remix)’ promoting African Heat to a wider audience gives me and other African artists more opportunities to reach millions of Spotify listeners,” said Focalistic.