Top 15 African And American Musical Collaborations
As African music becomes more popular in the United States, we’re seeing more musical collaborations between African and American artists.
You may think that these collaborations are something new. But, American and African artists have been collaborating for decades, and as far back as the ’60s.
So, here’s a list of 15 musical collaborations that you should discover or listen again. There were many great songs to choose from, but we could only pick 15.
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December 2022 Update
Since we first published this article in June 2020, many more musical collaborations between African and American artists have been released. At the end of this post, you will find a playlist that includes all the videos of musical collaborations we could find on YouTube. The playlist is regularly updated so, be sure to bookmark it.
15. The Very Best featuring Ezra Koenig – Warm Heart of Africa
The Very Best is a global band with original members from France, Sweden and Malawi. The group was started in London after a chance meeting between Etienne Tron, Johan (Karlberg) Hugo, and Esau Mwamwaya. At the time, Etienne and Johan were a London-based DJ and production duo called Radioclit. Esau is a singer from Lilongwe, in Malawi. Etienne later left the group.
The title of this first track refers to Malawi. The country is called the warm heart of Africa because of the kindness of its people.
In this song, Esau Mwamwaya is joined by American artist Ezra Koenig. He is the lead vocalist of the indie rock band Vampire Weekend. Esau sings in Chichewa and Ezra in English. The video is low budget, but very fun to watch. Warm Heart of Africa uses a sample from Guitar Boy, a song by Sir Victor Uwaifo from Nigeria.
14. Lisa Simone, Dianne Reeves, Lizz Wright, Angélique Kidjo – Four Women
The second song on our list is a live performance that brought together the powerful voices of Lisa Simone, Dianne Reeves, Lizz Wright, and Angélique Kidjo. The performance happened in 2009 in Vienna, during the Sing The Truth concert. The event was a tribute to the musical heritage of jazz musician, Nina Simone. The original Nina Simone band accompanied the 4 vocalists and was led by Al Shackman, the band leader who worked with Nina Simone for 41 years.
Nina Simone’s song “describes four black women and the kinds of violence, exploitation and marginalization they each faced as expressed through riddles”.
Angélique Kidjo sings the part of Aunt Sarah. Born in Benin, Angélique Kidjo is an artist who often shows through her music the cultural connections between Africa and the Afro-descendants in the Americas.
Next woman is Georgia native, Lizz Wright, who sings Saffronia’s part, in her very unique voice.
Lizz is followed by Lisa, Nina Simone’s daughter, who sings Sweet Thing’s part.
Finally, jazz singer and Michigan native Dianne Reeves wraps up the song with Peaches’ part.
These four talented women came together for a powerful and uplifting performance.
13. One8 featuring R Kelly – Hands Across The World
Several years before the rise of Nigerian pop in the US, eight African music stars collaborated with R. Kelly on a track called Hands Across The World. The 8 artists were recruited by Airtel Africa, a telecommunications services company, for its marketing campaign. The Airtel One8 project “[used] the power of music to forge a cultural connection between Africa and the rest of the world“.
The members of the group were Nigerian R&B singer 2Face, Alikiba from Tanzania, Congolese singer Fally Ipupa, 4X4 from Ghana, hip-hop artist Movaizhaleine from Gabon, Zambia’s JK, Ugandan hip-hop star Navio and Kenya’s Amani – the only woman in the group. In December 2010, they released “Hands Across The World”, an uplifting ballad written, produced by, and featuring R. Kelly.
There were plans to release a full-length album the next year, but we could not find any information about that album online.
Fally Ipupa has also collaborated with Olivia Longott of G-Unit on the 2009 song Chaise Electrique. In 2017, he worked again with R Kelly on Nidja.
“We hope it will help people explore music from the rest of the continent and, at the end of the day that helps us get African music onto a much bigger platform,” [Amani said]. “Africa is an untapped and beautiful market when it comes to music.” (Source: Billboard.com)
12. P-Square featuring Rick Ross – Beautiful Onyinye
We must credit P-Square as being one of the bands that brought in the new Nigerian pop music wave. They released their first album in the early 2000s. In 2011, the duo signed a partnership with Akon’s label Konvict Muzik. Akon appeared on Chop My Money Remix.
In an interview with Okay! Nigeria TV, the duo explained that they were with Akon and Rick Ross in Atlanta. Rick Ross liked the Chop My Money’s vibe. Akon then suggested to the duo that they collaborate with Rick Ross. The result of their collaboration is the remix you can hear below.
11. Stonebwoy featuring Keri Hilson – Nominate
Great things happen when they are unplanned, including great songs like this one. Keri Hilson shared on her Instagram the story of how her collaboration with Stonebwoy happened.
Long story short, Keri Hilson met a guy on a plane who knew Stonebwoy. He connected the two artists. Stonebwoy happened to be in Atlanta at the time. They soon met and recorded “Nominate”.
10. Sauti Sol featuring India Arie – My Everything
In March 2020, fans of the group Sauti Sol noticed India Arie commenting on a video that Sauti Sol posted to their Instagram page. Some of them even wondered in the comments if India Arie’s reaction meant a collaboration was to be expected between her and Sauti Sol.
The fans don’t need to speculate anymore. On June 4, 2020, Sauti Sol released on YouTube the audio of My Everything featuring India Arie. Some Youtubers commented that the song has some kizomba vibes. And they are right.
9. Harry Belafonte and Miriam Makeba – Malaika
Miriam Makeba and Harry Belafonte’s collaboration is a great throwback to the pan-Africanist spirit of the 1960s.
Harry Belafonte was very active in supporting emerging African artists as well as making African music known worldwide. In 1960, Miriam Makeba was featured on the song “One More Dance” from Harry Belafonte’s 1960 album, Belafonte Returns to Carnegie Hall.
In 1965, they released together the album An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba. The most famous song from that album is the song “Malaika”.
8. Paul Simon and Ladysmith Mambazo- Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes
The legendary Ladysmith Black Mambazo is a male choral group from South Africa. In 1986, they were featured for the first time on Paul Simon’s LP Graceland.
Paul Simon’s project was controversial for many reasons. But, it produced many classic songs like You Can Call Me Al and this song, Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes.
7. Fela Kuti and Roy Ayers – 2,000 Blacks Got To Be Free
In 1979, Roy Ayers and Fela Kuti toured around Nigeria for three weeks. At the end of the tour, the two artists decided to record an album together. The album is a combination of Afrobeat and soul jazz. Roy Ayers and Fela Kuti each lead one side of the album.
On 2,000 Blacks Got To Be Free, Roy Ayers sings about his dream and vision of the unity of Black people. The second track (Africa- Centre Of The World) has a stronger Afrobeat vibe. On this track, Fela Kuti sings about the ignorance about Africa and Africans that he witnessed in London. He also invites Black people all over the world to set their minds on Africa.
40 years after the album release, we’re still facing the issues and questions that Fela and Roy sang about in their album.
6. Taj Mahal & Toumani Diabate – Creole Belle
Creole Belle is the second live performance on our playlist.
In 1999, blues artist Taj Mahal and Malian kora player Toumani Diabaté collaborated together and released the album Kulanjan. The album explores the West African roots of blues music.
Creole Belle is a classic blues song that has been performed by many artists. This live performance beautifully combines the sounds of the kora and of the blues guitar.
5. French Montana featuring Swae Lee – Unforgettable
Moroccan-American rapper French Montana joined forces with Swae Lee on Unforgettable. The track was released in 2017 on French Montana album, Jungle Rules.
The video for the song was filmed in Uganda. It features the Triplets Ghetto Kids, a dance group of children from Katwe in Uganda. French Montana was inspired to film the “Unforgettable” video with the Ghetto Kids after watching them on YouTube.
4. Diamond Platnumz featuring Omarion – African Beauty
Tanzanian superstar Diamond Platnumz is one of the current African artists with the most collaborations with artists from across many genres. He has partnered with artists from all over Africa. He has also released tracks featuring the American artists Rick Ross, Ne-Yo, and Omarion.
We love that in his collaborations, Diamond Platnumz makes the other artists , like Omarion and Ne-Yo sing in Swahili.
3. Wizkid featuring Drake – Come Closer
Wizkid first worked with Drake on the track “One Dance” in 2016. The track quickly became the most streamed song on Spotify, the music streaming platform.
In December 2019, Spotify announced that One Dance was the second most streamed song of the decade.
Drake and Wizkid artists met through Skepta, the British rapper.
In 2017, Wizkid and Drake collaborated again on “Come Closer”. Wizkid has also worked with Diplo, Swizz Beatz, Major Lazer, Chris Brown, Ty Dolla Sign and Trey Songz.
2. Davido and Chris Brown – Blow My Mind
After the success of Fall, which became the longest-charting Nigerian pop song in Billboard history, Davido released another banger in 2019. Blow My Mind is a collaboration with Chris Brown, that was also part of Davido’s 2019 album titled A Good Time.
Davido has collaborated with several other American artists, including Tinashe, Meek Mill, Young Thug and Rae Sremmurd.
1. Beyonce and various artists – The Lion King: The Gift
Beyoncé described the soundtrack of the 2019 remake of The Lion King, as a “love letter to Africa” . She wanted to find the best talent from Africa and she worked with artists from several African countries. From the producers to the featured artists, this album was a collaboration that brought together the sounds of America and of Africa.
The African artists featured on the album are: Tekno, Yemi Alade, Mr Eazi, Burna Boy, Oumou Sangaré, Wizkid, Salatiel, Tiwa Savage, Shatta Wale, Busiswa, Moonchild Sanelly, and DJ Lag.
