Hits that struck the right notes in 2023

With 2023 now being viewed through the rear-view mirror, SongBoost can help critics take stock of the year that was. The online platform monitors radio airplay for artistes in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Congo, Zambia, Ghana, and Nigeria, among others. In doing so, it helps musicians, managers, and labels track their music on at least 315 radio stations across Africa.

For context, the platform tracks 172 radio stations in Uganda, 63 stations in Kenya, and 17 in Rwanda. For this story, though, we are interested in areas where Ugandan music is likely to be played.

For streaming, we are going to use data exclusively gathered from Spotify Africa. Unlike the past years, where they shared information on the most streamed Ugandan artistes in Uganda with those exported, 2023’s data is more general in nature.

Either way, however, we are using Spotify because they provided some of their data, plus, as per January 2023, there was an increase in local music consumption on the platform by 294 percent.

Last year, the local music scene was dominated by Alien Skin, thanks to his antics, fights and disagreements with people, including Bobi Wine, McKats and Pallaso.

However, his ability to trend did not necessarily translate to dominating the charts. In fact, he appears only twice in the top 100 most played songs on local radio stations.

Vinka, Baraka feats

Vinka’s Bailando was the most played song. To be precise, per SongBoost’s dataset, it was the most played song for at least 13 weeks. Bailando was played by 156 stations in the six countries of Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.

Vinka dominated 2023’s top five with three entries—Bailando, Chekecha and Believe—two collaborations with Winnie Nwagi, Karole Kasita and Dax Vibez respectively.

Joshua Baraka’s breakout song Nana was the third most played song on Ugandan radio stations and the most streamed song on Spotify with 3.7 million streams. The remix of Nana featuring Kenyan singer Bien of Sauti Sol, King Promise from Ghana and Joeboy was streamed more than 1.2 million times.

Breaking down the widespread popularity of Nana, it becomes apparent that the original easily propelled the remix to success. It can also be argued that Nana’s success paved the way for Joshua Baraka’s other releases. For example, he has three songs, Nana and its remix, alongside Omukwano with Winnie Nwagi appearing on the SongBoost top 100 most played songs on radio.

Nana is also Uganda’s most exported Ugandan song on Spotify. It replaces Bebe Cool’s 2014 song Love You Everyday, which was the most exported Ugandan song in 2022.

The single from Bebe Cool’s ambitious Go Mama album gained traction in India when a group of boys in India covered it and their video went viral. The song gained six more million views at the time, and there was a surge in its popularity on Spotify as well.

Love You Everyday has been streamed more than four million times on Spotify and is the 10th most exported song.

Gold standard

Five years after his death in 2018, Geoffrey Oryema is still one of Uganda’s biggest music exports.

Oryema fled into exile after the murder of his father by the regime in 1977. Before his death on June 22, 2018, Oryema had returned to Uganda only once for a homecoming concert that was hosted at Lohana Academy in December 2016. With songs such as Land of Anaka, The River and Lapwony, he thrilled his Ugandan audiences, many of whom were experiencing his craft for the first time.

Oryema had promised that he wasn’t going to stay away from Uganda for more than 40  years, but that did not happen. His music transcends time and cultures. It is heavily associated with different African cultures; even when they are not East African or Ugandan. His music has been used in South African films, Congo, Nigeria, and many from the Caribbean.

Because Oreyma’s music has been present in pop culture, it is possible people on Shazam stream it. His song, Makambo, was the third most exported song from Uganda on Spotify. The song appeared on the Academy-nominated documentary film War Dance. Other songs from Oreyma’s catalogue were in films such as Song to Song and Bendazzled.

Other Ugandans whose music was exceptional in 2023 included Azawi, whose 2021 African Music album was the only local one among the most streamed albums by Ugandans. The rest are: I Told Them by Burna Boy, Ayra Star’s 19 and Dangerous and Davido’s Timeless, among others.

Top Export
Baraka’s Nana
Joshua Baraka’s breakout song Nana  is Uganda’s most exported song on Spotify. It replaces Bebe Cool’s 2014 song Love You Everyday, which was the most exported Ugandan song in 2022.