Spotify celebrates 10 years of Amapiano with special playlists & podcast

Music streaming platform Spotify is celebrating a decade of Amapiano, a South African dance genre. Last year, Amapiano music hit over 1.4 billion streams on Spotify, with the genre gaining influence on the music culture in South Africa and beyond through dance challenges to inspired collaborations and fusions.

In Kenya, the Amapiano audience increased by 74% between 2023 and 2024. This influence has led to the launch of ‘A Decade of Amapiano’, a site looking at the past decade of Amapiano and its different key influences, complemented by an on-platform Amapiano destination with pivotal playlists and podcast.

The COVID-19 pandemic proved to be a game-changing year for Amapiano’s growth on the platform. In 2020, the genre hit its first 100 million streams, followed by an impressive 300 million streams in 2021, further solidifying its rising popularity.

‘A Decade of Amapiano’ was launched in the lead up to South Africa’s commemoration of Youth Day in South Africa on 16th June. This date marks a historical turning point for the country’s youth and their quest for freedom and justice. The youth continue to use Amapiano as a platform to amplify their voices, freely express their aspirations and showcase their resilience and creativity.

In June 2023, Spotify launched ‘Afrobeats: Journey of a billion streams’, a website dedicated to celebrating the Afrobeats genre. Spotify, through ‘A Decade of Amapiano’, reinforces its commitment to supporting the growth of home grown music genres in Africa. Originating from South African townships to the global stages, ‘A Decade of Amapiano’ tracks the genre’s ascend to the music throne showcasing the journey and highlighting some of the genre’s key artists.

In addition to the special playlists, Spotify will be hosting influencers and media from Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria, Japan, Brazil, Egypt, France, United States of America, and the United Kingdom for a week-long tour tracing Amapiano’s history and origins and exploring how the genre traveled beyond South Africa. The tour debuted last year in June with influencers and media from the African continent, and is expanding to include other countries outside Africa where Amapiano is popular.

A Decade of Amapiano is now live on Spotify’s For The Record and the Amapiano destination on-platform.

Top Amapiano tracks over the last 10 years streamed in Kenya