A winter afternoon in Salt Lake City might be the last setting where you’d expect to find a celebration of Afrobeats, a musical meshing of West African rhythms and styles. But in Utah in 2023, a medley by the Nigerian singers Tems, Burna Boy and Rema at halftime of the N.B.A. All-Star Game showed that American sports leagues were embracing the genre.
“I was just so proud to see our own playing on that stage,” said Masai Ujiri, then the president of the Toronto Raptors, who was raised in Nigeria and takes dance lessons to the music about once a week.
Afrobeats had been part of track and field and soccer culture by that point, but its influence on the sports world has only grown since.
This summer, Burna Boy’s hit single “Don’t Let Me Drown” was featured on the soundtrack of the racing blockbuster “F1: The Movie” and Tems performed at halftime at an international soccer final. Tyla, who is South African and incorporates Afrobeats into her music, has signed an endorsement deal with Nike. Aya Nakamura, a French Malian singer with Afrobeats influences, was part of the opening ceremony of last year’s Summer Olympics in Paris.
Music executives, athletes and artists are pointing to the Latin star Bad Bunny’s upcoming Super Bowl halftime performance as a template that Afrobeats could follow.
“There just needs to be more familiarity and visibility and more great songs, more work,” said Tunji Balogun, the chief executive of Def Jam Recordings. “It’s going take time. But I do think it’ll happen eventually.”
Afrobeats is a 21st-century amalgamation of Nigerian and Ghanaian styles that is distinct from the jazz-, soul- and funk-influenced Afrobeat genre of the 1960s. It entered the American mainstream in the 2010s.
Drake collaborated with the Nigerian artist Wizkid on the song “One Dance” in 2016, and Selena Gomez, Justin Bieber and Ed Sheeran have also been featured on Afrobeats songs. Burna Boy performed at the Grammy Awards last year, and releases by Burna Boy, Tems and Davido have been commercial successes.
“All of these artists can sell out tours in America and tour the entire country — 10 years ago that was damn near impossible,” said Balogun, whose parents are Nigerian.
Ebro Darden, an Apple Music radio host, said the current Afrobeats stars have been important ambassadors in an industry where top talent can be selective about public engagements.
“They’ve done the shows, they’ve done the interviews, they care and they don’t take the spotlight for granted,” Darden said.
The inclusion of Afrobeats in the sports world aligns with the international ambitions of several American leagues.
The All-Star Game halftime show was a direct result of the N.B.A.’s having established a 12-team league in Africa about two years earlier, said Carlton Myers, the senior vice president of live production and entertainment for the N.B.A. He said he had heard from colleagues who were on the ground about the excitement that locals demonstrated for the music.
“I was getting a lot of information about how prevalent it was over there and how it was coming our way,” he said.
Afrobeats has been played in arenas during regular-season N.B.A. games, and some of the league’s top stars are avid listeners. Stephen Curry, the Golden State Warriors guard, has said he is a fan of Burna Boy and Wizkid; Davido performed at the wedding of Joel Embiid, the Cameroonian center who plays for the Philadelphia 76ers.
The N.F.L., which successfully campaigned to add flag football to the 2028 Olympics, is also investing resources in Africa, hosting fan events and camps for potential players in countries such as South Africa and Kenya.
Jesse Luketa, a linebacker for the Los Angeles Rams, balances his football career with rapping and creating Afrobeats music. His mother is from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and he speaks English, French and Lingala, a language spoken in Central Africa. As demographics shift, he said, it is natural for Afrobeats to become more visible.
“The game is starting to grow, kids are getting the opportunity to showcase their abilities and change their circumstances, and it’s a beautiful thing,” Luketa said.
Irene Agbontaen, a marketing executive for United Talent Agency, which represents Burna Boy and Tyla, said the appearance of Afrobeats at a Super Bowl was inevitable. She pointed out that despite the growing commercial power of Latin music, that genre has had sparse representation on the Super Bowl stage. (Shakira and Jennifer Lopez performed together in 2020, and Gloria Estefan was involved in the 1992 show.)
“It gives us the understanding of knowing that our time is coming,” she said. “We’re just waiting for the rest of the world to catch up.”
Emmanuel Morgan reports on sports, pop culture and entertainment.
The post American Sports Are Turning Up the Volume of Afrobeats appeared first on New York Times.
