The UK’s first official Afrobeats chart will highlight the top 20 Afrobeats artists by compiling UK sales and streaming data from over 9,000 outlets.
This week, the UK is launching its first official Afrobeats chart, and today (21 July) a list of the UK’s official top 20 Afrobeats artists of the past 12 months has been revealed. Incorporating physical sales, downloads, audio streams and video streams.
The first Afrobeats chart will be unveiled this Sunday (26 July) from 1-3pm BST on BBC Radio 1Xtra, and the chart will be updated weekly every Sunday from 2pm BST via a Spotify ‘Official UK Afrobeats Chart’ playlist.
Data collected by the Official Charts Company shows that in 2019, Afrobeats artists spent 86 weeks in the Official Chart Top 40 collectively, a significant increase from a total of 24 weeks in 2017.
To celebrate the launch of the UK’s first Afrobeats chart, a playlist has been created for the Official Top 20 Afrobeats Artists Of The Past 12 Months, featuring songs by J Hus, Burna Boy, Kojo Funds, WizKid, Not3s and more.
Mark Strippel, Head of Programmes at BBC Radio 1Xtra says of the chart, “1Xtra has been committed to championing the Afrobeats scene since our formation and we’re excited to support the launch of the first-ever UK Afrobeats Chart. This is much-needed and long overdue. We’re proud to be a part of history.”
The UK’s Official #AfrobeatsChart launches this Sunday at 1pm on @1xtra, and will be published on https://t.co/sG969XmCgG every Sunday. https://t.co/WcKUWsKyns
— Official Charts (@officialcharts) July 21, 2020