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Official Charts Company launches Afrobeats chart
By Andy Malt | Published on Tuesday 21 July 2020
The Official Charts Company has announced the launch of the Official UK Afrobeats Chart, a weekly top 20 of the biggest Afrobeats tracks in the UK. It is being launched in partnership with the Afro Nation festival.
The first edition of the chart will be unveiled in a special show on BBC 1Xtra at 1pm this Sunday, after which it will be revealed on the OCC website and via a Spotify playlist.
“We are delighted to be supporting Afro Nation in the launch of this new Afrobeats Chart”, says Official Charts Company chief executive Martin Talbot. “This fast-growing genre is having an increasingly powerful impact on the music landscape right now, both in the UK and further afield, through artists including the likes of NSG, J Hus and Burna Boy. We’re THRILLED to be helping cast a spotlight on this success through the development of the genre’s own dedicated weekly chart”.
To mark the announcement of the new chart, the Official Charts Company has also published a top 20 list of the biggest Afrobeats artists of the last twelve months. It notes the increased appearance of these artists on the main singles chart too, saying that Afrobeats artists collectively spent 86 weeks in the Official Chart Top 40 in the last year, up from 24 weeks in 2017.
Number one in that rundown is J Hus, followed by Burna Boy. See the full yearly top 20 and find out more about the new weekly chart here.
