Music : South African Rhythm Enticing Cameroonians

A South African Music genre known as Amapiano is gaining grouds in Cameroon. In the city of Yaounde, the sound of Amapiano is often heard echoing from leisure spots, markets and phones of youngsters who walk along singing or dancing to the rhythm. It is common to see dance groups learning the choreography of an Amapiano song or groups of friends learning the lyrics of songs by prominent composers in the domain like Uncle Waffles and DJ Maphorisa. Some say this new wave of music has surpassed Afrobeats which originated from West Africa.
Amapiano, which gained popularity in 2010, is a genre of music that includes beats, rhythms and is known for its tempo and repetitive piano melodies. The word itself comes from the South African native tongue Zulu, which means “the pianos”. In recent years, statistics have shown that over 1.4 billion people stream Amapiano on Spotify; the most popular music streaming application in the world. This genre of music is popular among young listeners as music industry analysts have revealed that 62% of Amapiano streams are attributed to youths. One of them is Nelly Mufri, a professional dancer whose love for the music comes from admiration. “What attracted me is how South Africans enjoy themselves while dancing Amapiano. Every Amapiano dance step is much easier to do. It entails only little effort as compared to Afrobeats which is somewhat complex. I put in more time and energy to learn ...