Billboard Africa, by attempting to reflect the continent as one market, risks privileging those already visible.
There was a time when a photo of an African artiste standing beside an American superstar was enough to send the internet into a frenzy. A grainy backstage snapshot with Jay-Z or Rihanna would trend for days, feeding a shared dream of global recognition. Then came the time when we started to celebrate collaborations with American stars. When D’Banj and Kanye West linked up, or when Wizkid appeared on Drake’s “One Dance”, it felt like the door had been cracked open. We celebrated every co-sign. But after a while, it stopped feeling special.
Today, it takes more than a feature or a photo to get us excited. As a culture, we now reserve our loudest applause for songs that crack the Billboard Hot 100, for gold and platinum certifications in the US and UK, for gold or platinum certifications in the US or UK, or when an African artiste sells out a major arena anywhere in the world. That shift from being excited by foreign co-signs to expecting real global success shows how far African music has come and where African music stands today on the global stage.
It also explains why the launch of Billboard Africa on June 5, 2025, sparked such a polarized reaction: for some, it felt like a long-overdue infrastructure win. For others, it felt like we were being boxed in all over again. Across X (formerly Twitter), many users questioned the implications. One wrote: “You people just like to box Africa. Now we want Billboard Europe, Billboard South and North America, Billboard Asian. Don’t box our music. We are worldwide and we sing all types of genres.” Another asked pointedly: “Why do we have Billboard Korea, Japan, USA, Philippines etc., but not Billboard South Africa, Nigeria, or Ghana, but instead ‘Africa’? Or the division will come later?”
The concerns are loud and familiar that Africa isn’t a genre, and it’s not one single market. And yet again, it is being packaged as a single product.
Framing, Metrics & Infrastructure
On the surface, the launch of Billboard Africa seems to be a major step forward. With its headquarters in Gaborone, Botswana, deliberately outside the usual cultural capitals of Lagos or Johannesburg, it has positioned itself as pan-African and decentralized. The platform promises data-driven charts, exclusive content, and regional presence. Its executives speak of investment, collaboration, and deep respect for the continent’s complexity. But beyond the branding, there’s still a key question about what problem Billboard Africa is trying to solve and how it plans to do that.
African music already has numerous tracking and charting systems. There’s the Billboard U.S. Afrobeats Songs Chart, Official UK Afrobeats Chart, and Shazam’s Global Top 200. Spotify provides daily and weekly charts in some African countries, though not all. Nigeria has TurnTable Charts, South Africa has its own local Billboard affiliate called The Official South African Charts. Yet accuracy and representation remain persistent issues. So, why Billboard Africa?
According to the team behind it, Billboard Africa plans to blend traditional Billboard methodologies, like radio airplay monitoring, with streaming data from platforms more widely used in Africa, including Audiomack, Boomplay, and YouTube. This hybrid approach is an attempt to reflect how music is actually consumed across the continent, especially in countries where Spotify’s influence is marginal. In theory, that balance between radio and digital makes sense. But it also invites deeper scrutiny. What weight will be given to each platform? Will a Boomplay stream in Nigeria be equivalent to a radio spin in Malawi? How will markets with weak streaming infrastructure participate in a data-driven chart?
I asked Management Samad, a Lagos-based talent manager, what he made of it. “They say it’s a step forward, but I’ve seen this before,” Samad told me. “It starts as inclusion and ends as isolation. Look at what happened with the Grammys, once they gave us one category, the global push slowed down. People started saying, ‘Let’s just win that one.’ Billboard Africa could become our own sandbox while the real game is still being played in the Hot 100.”
When I raised the question with Samuel Viavonu, a culture journalist and critic, he agreed but took it further. “The danger isn’t just in categorization. It’s in who gets counted. Billboard says it’ll use African data, but what does that mean in practice? We’ve seen that even local charts often overrepresent city artistes and underrepresent others. If you’re not from Lagos, Nairobi, or Joburg, will you be visible?.” This gets at the heart of the issue. Billboard Africa’s strength, its regional scale, could also be its greatest weakness. By attempting to reflect the continent as one market, it risks privileging those already visible.
Interrogating Intentions & Future Stakes
Still, it would be reductive to call Billboard Africa a bad idea. The platform, if executed well, could help organize a notoriously fragmented industry, provide more accurate insights, and drive smarter investment decisions. It could offer local artistes a clearer sense of where they stand. It might even help spotlight genres and scenes that often get ignored by global media narratives.
But that depends entirely on execution. Will the charts evolve beyond data and actually reflect cultural context? Will the editorial voice be regionally informed? Will Billboard Africa develop into a bridge to global platforms, or remain a neatly contained showcase? Because maybe the issue isn’t Billboard Africa itself, but the long-standing global habit of placing Africa in neat, marketable boxes. The same boxes that celebrate “African excellence” abroad while muting its complexity at home.
Brandon Martin, CEO of Global Venture Partners, the Dubai-based firm that partnered with Billboard Africa, framed the platform’s mission with optimism. According to his remarks at the launch, Billboard Africa is not just about creating a new media platform but about amplifying the untapped potential of Africa’s music economy. “Africa has long been a cultural powerhouse, with music at the heart of that influence. Through Billboard Africa, we’re not only raising visibility for artistes but laying the groundwork for an infrastructure that supports sustainable growth. We hope this venture encourages more members of the African diaspora to see the incredible opportunities on the continent and invest in its future. By working together, we can build a vibrant ecosystem where African talent thrives, strengthens local economies and reaches every corner of the globe,” he said.
There’s no doubt that promises like these sound great. But they need to be backed by real action, honesty, and a true effort to show Africa as it really is and not just something polished for export, but as a rich, complex culture. Because if Billboard Africa reinforces that box, even with the best intentions, then the industry will once again find itself fighting for air in a frame it didn’t design.