Afro Nation is a music festival that was founded in 2019 by two Nigerians, Obi Asika and Smade, to bring together the best African artists in Afrobeats, hip-hop, R&B, dancehall, amapiano, Afro house, and more.
The first festival was held in Portugal in August 2019 and we missed the second festival in Ghana by just six months – we left Accra in June 2019 and the festival was held there in December 2019 during Ghana’s Year of Return.
Festival dates were postponed in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid, but that didn’t stop Chop Vegas from taking place in September 2021 (and May 2022). This would technically be the first Afrobeats festival in the US, but it wasn’t billed as such because it took place in venues/casinos around Vegas instead of a centralized location.
2022 saw the return of three Afro Nation festivals in Puerto Rico (March), Portugal (July), and Ghana (December). But our Afro Nation journey began on Saturday, February 3, 2023, when we happened to look up local performances for Burna Boy and the Miami 2023 festival came up. Not only would Burna Boy be headlining the festival, but some of our other favorite artists like Black Sherif and Fireboy DML would be there as well.
Our last day of school this year was Friday, May 26 and the festival began on Saturday, May 27. Miami was a city we definitely wanted to visit during our time in the US, so we began comparing the pros/cons of flying vs driving. If we flew, we’d need a car rental along with our airline tickets, which would be expensive on top of our VIP festival tickets (if the artist can’t sweat on you, did you even see them live? Haha). But if we drove, we’d never make it in time – which is how we came to decide to take the last day of school off.
We drove for eight hours after school on Thursday, May 25 and 16.5 hours on Friday, May 26. All I can say is it was BRUTAL. But we slept in on Saturday, to make sure we’d be well rested for the weekend’s magic. It was 100% worth it.
Saturday, May 27
The festival was located at loanDepot park, home of the Miami Marlins. It was advertised as starting at 2pm and lasting until midnight. We knew the line up, but couldn’t find set times for each artist. We figured we should arrive sooner, rather than later, and after parking, made our way through the VIP entrance around 2:30pm. The Main Stage (inside the stadium) wasn’t open yet, but the outdoor Amapiano Stage (DJ/house music) was in full swing.
We took a walk around to check out the food stalls/trucks and the freebies before hopping in line – promising ourselves we’d return to Sankofa for some jollof rice the next day. We were pretty happy standing around people watching – festival clothing is always wild. The doors opened just after 3:00pm, which is when we discovered that Nissi, the first performer of the day, wouldn’t go on stage until 4:50pm. Turns out we were more than a bit early, which is why the stage area looked like this:
Not to fear, however, because the 20,000 tickets had already sold out, and by the end of the night, we’d be in a packed stadium.
Our hosts on the main stage were Uncle Vinny, DJ Prince, and ECOOL. It was hilarious watching them try to hype 50 people up for those first few hours, but they made a lot more sense as the number of attendees started reaching the thousands.
When we had purchased our tickets, there were three tiers. General admission included seats just about anywhere in the stadium, VIP admission included floor seats and standing room anywhere on the field, and Golden Tickets seemed to be the same as VIP, along with access to the before and after parties. VIP suited us just fine – we’d be able to get up near the stage, but let’s face it – we’re too old for after parties!
Turns out Golden Tickets had one additional perk – access to a bar right off the field. But since I’m pretty sure I was getting over my third or fourth round of Covid, I didn’t exactly need any drinks that weekend. There was also a fourth ticket type (likely sold out by the time we bought ours) – Sky Terrace packages for groups of four that included a raised platform with chairs closer to the stage, which didn’t apply to our twosome.
In true African style, the 4:50 start time was optimistic. But unlike any music festival I’d been to in the past, for this one, we were able to sit in bucket seats in the shade while we waited. It was bliss. Most Afro Nation festivals take place on the beach, but I thought the baseball stadium was a great location.
Nissi
At about 5:30pm, the main stage was finally ready for the first performance of the night: Nissi. She was born in Nigeria and is the younger sister of one of our favorite Afrobeats artists, Burna Boy. She’s been singing since she was six and her first single was released in 2016, but she’s hardly a woman of singular talents.
In addition to being an Afro-pop/R&B singer, she also has a degree in mechanical engineering and was part of the engineering team that designed the 2023 Range Rover. In addition, she’s the founder of Creele Animation Studios and directed/produced/composed the 2021 short animated film The Satchel. I’m feeling a little inadequate here.
Her set was quick, but a lot of fun. She had great energy and if I’m being honest, I loved watching a woman perform – there aren’t a lot of female Afrobeats artists getting recognition.
Song recommendations: Holiday & Gravity
Nelson Freitas
Next up was Nelson Freitas – he was born in the Netherlands to Cape Verdean parents. He was one of the few artists at the festival that I hadn’t listened to previously. His music is a combination of Cape Verdean zouk and R&B. He was also one of the older artists at the festival, which means he’s got a long history – starting with a boy band, before releasing his first solo album in 2006.
We decided to take a seat during his set to preserve our energy for the rest of the night! But his performance was still enjoyable, even from a baseball field away.
Song recommendations: Nha Baby & Set Me Alight
Black Sherif
I’d be lying if I said Black Sherif wasn’t the artist I was most looking forward to at the festival. He’s hardly the biggest artist in the Afrobeats scene, but he’s from Ghana and his song Kwaku the Traveler was one of my favorite songs from 2022. He’s only been in the music industry since 2019, but that’s not too surprisingly as he’s only 21 years old – fun fact, his debut concert was in Accra in December 2022 (just five months ago!).
My hands-down highlight from the entire festival was when he ended his set by performing Kwaku a cappella. He was one of the only artists the entire weekend who did not perform over vocal tracks and while he may not have been the best “performer,” he was definitely the most talented. His music is a blend of highlife, reggae, and hip-hop, specifically UK drill.
Song recommendations: Kwaku the Traveler, Oil in my Head, 45, Wasteman, & Second Sermon
CKay
CKay was introduced as “Africa’s boyfriend” because of his 2021 EP titled Boyfriend. Self-described as a singer of “Emo-Afrobeats” and “Afro-pop from the future (2056 AD specifically),” his music includes elements of Afrobeats, R&B, and dancehall. By the time CKay was on stage, the audience had definitely started to fill out. We had debated returning to our seats for an artist or two after him, but decided to keep standing for the next four hours to keep our prime spots.
Fun fact – when Billboard (in association with Afro Nation) created the US Afrobeats Chart in March 2022, CKay’s song Love Nwantiti was the first number one song. It was a clear crowd pleaser, with everyone able to sing along.
Song recommendations: Love Nwantiti, WATAWI, & You Cheated, I Cheated Too
Dadju
Like Freitas, Dadju also started his musical career in a duo, with rapper Abou Tall. Born in France, his father is from the Congo. He has three brothers and they’re all rappers too. I hadn’t listened to a lot of his music prior to the festival, but his show was so good that I’ve definitely started listening to him more. I walked away from Afro Nation with a new respect for (and interest in) French Afrobeats. Dadju mixes R&B, hip-hip, Afropop, and soul in unique ways. He’s also got some great collaborations.
Song recommendations: Reine, Meleğim, Des fois, & Picsou
Mavado
Woof. This was a low point in the festival. Mavado is a Jamaican dancehall singer. He arrived on stage late (day one times weren’t particularly accurate) and left early – the crowd didn’t seem upset, just mostly confused. I hadn’t listened to his music before the festival, so didn’t know what to expect, but it was not for me. Having listened to a few songs afterward, I can now tell you why it didn’t work. He was super aggressive on-stage and he didn’t have his auto-tune on (an issue throughout the festival).
Song recommendations: None. Is that rude? Ok, you can listen to Give It All to Me (mostly because Nicki Minaj is fire)
Asake
Huge upgrade from Mavado. We’ve loved Asake for a while and I’m obsessed with his song Organise – which is what he started his set with. He was hands down the most fun performer – he genuinely looked like he was having a great time. It was fairly hot in Miami and muggy as hell, but he was one of many performers who came out overdressed. In practically no time at all he had stripped his jacket off, then his shirt, before hamming it up and removing his necklace and rings too.
There was a wide variety of singers at the festival, but the country most represented was Nigeria, which is where Asake is from too. His real name is Ahmed Ololade, but his stage name, Asake, is his mother’s name – so don’t let his grill fool you, this man has a heart of gold. He’s also relatively new to music, he released his first songs in 2018 and his first studio album came out in 2022. His music uses Afro and amapiano-styled production.
Song recommendations: Organise, Dull, & Joha
Burna Boy
Burna Boy is definitely one of the first Afrobeats artists we started hearing during our Uber rides in Ghana, but it wasn’t until the release of his song Last Last summer 2022 that we became obsessed. That song will always remind me of washing clothes in a New Orleans’ laundromat.
Burna Boy is also from Nigeria and has been well-known in the Afrobeat’s scene since 2012. Before attending the Afro Nation festival, we watched Afrobeats: The Backstory to learn all about the history of this genre and Burna Boy pretty much had his own episode – he’s that big.
Fun fact: In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked him number 197 on its list of the 200 greatest singers of all time. Second fun fact: His maternal grandfather, Benson Idonije, once managed Fela Kuti – who is considered to be the pioneer of Afrobeat music (and if you want to know the difference between Afrobeat and Afrobeats, I guess you’ll just have to watch that documentary!).
It should come as no surprise that his show was epic – though we were surprised how much he (and most of the other festival singers) relied on singing over his own vocals – it was only when he performed a cappella that we could truly hear what he sounded like live (which was incredible).
Third fun fact: He is king of collaborations, partnering with artists such as J Balvin, Fall Out Boy, Lily Allen, Wizkid, Olamide, Ed Sheeran, Khalid, Black Sherif, and so many more. During his show, Black Sherif joined him onstage to perform Second Sermon and it was my second greatest moment from the festival.
Song recommendations: Last Last, Wild Dreams, How Bad Could It Be, & Way Too Big
Burna Boy was amazing and performed for well over his allotted hour on stage (but who was going to kick him off?), so we didn’t get out of the park until after midnight. We were exhausted after getting in late the previous two nights, so we passed out as soon as we got back to the hotel – luckily, we got to sleep in on Sunday, having a better idea of when the shows would start the following day.
Sunday, May 28
Day two of Afro Nation still had a lot in store for us – we were beyond stoked to see Fireboy DML, Rema, BNXN, and we’d recently gotten into Franglish (another French Afrobeats artist) as well.
Gyakie
We were still among some of the first arrivals on day two because we didn’t want to miss the first artist. We hadn’t listened to Gyakie much before the festival, but since she’s from Ghana, we felt like we needed to be in the crowd.
With the exception of maybe Mavado, she had the shortest set list of anyone at the festival. This made sense once I looked her up and saw that she hasn’t released an album yet, only singles and EPs. Her music is a mix of R&B and Afro-fusion, which isn’t really my style, but she does have a song that features Davido (one of the few Afrobeats artists I listen to that wasn’t at Afro Nation).
Song recommendations: Flames & Something
Franglish
Up next was Franglish – he was new to us just a few weeks ago, but felt well-known by the time we saw him live. Like Dadju, he’s French with Congolese heritage. He was the first performer to roll up with his own dance crew – other’s had backup dancers, but his crew was with him for nearly the entire performance.
Because he was only the second act of the day, crowd numbers were still low, but you’d have never known, given how much effort he put in to his performance. He was a true professional and I’m going to guess it’ll take him far.
Song recommendations: Squad, Bonnie & Clyde, & Mano
BNXN
Next up was BNXN (pronounced Benson – which is his last name), formerly known as Buju. He’s a Nigerian Afro-fusion singer, songwriter, and record producer who, at 26, is also pretty new to the music scene. Unfortunately, his set was awful – I couldn’t put my finger on why, but Chandler knew immediately because BNXN is one of his favorite artists – he had no autotuning on either.
His collaboration with Pheelz, Finesse, is so damn catchy I’ve gotten it stuck in my head all day before. BNXN had a lot of great stage energy, so next time he performs I hope the sound gets figured out.
Song recommendations: In My Mind & Kenkele
Sech
This is probably my only regret from the weekend – we missed most of Sech’s set. I had misheard someone describe Sech as reggae (not my vibe), when he’s actually reggaeton, which I love. But after BNXN, we went outside near the Amapiano Stage (for the first time since our arrival on Saturday!) to grab some jollof rice & plantains. Apparently everyone else had the same idea and we waited in line for a lot longer than expected! This was a double disappointment because we only caught a few of Sech’s songs AND the jollof was terrible.
Sech was born in Panama and, honestly, has some sweet jams. I know I’ll be listening to his music a lot in the upcoming weeks.
Song recommendations: Pata’ Abajo & Confía
Shenseea
Shenseea was a last-minute addition because Beenie Man couldn’t make it (no reason was given for his absence). Beenie Man is a Jamaican artist who actually has reggae vibes and after listening to a few of his songs, I 100% feel like Afro Nation upgraded with Shenseea.
Funny enough, she’s collaborated with Beenie Man, but I much prefer her songs with Fireboy DML, Sean Paul, and Megan Thee Stallion (and yes, she performed Diana with Fireboy at the beginning of his set). She is also from Jamaica, but her music has a great beat behind it. The entire audience was dancing through her set from start to finish – she also had a dance crew with her. I know Rihanna is from Barbados, but Shenseea feels like the Rihanna for Gen Z – guess time will tell if she’s got staying power.
Song recommendations: Lick & Shen Yeng Anthem
Fireboy DML
Fireboy DML might be our first love in Afrobeats – we’ve listened to more of his albums than any other, which is why we found ourselves puzzled that we only recognized about 2/3 of his set list. The show was still amazing, but I have no idea where those songs came from. He ended the set with my favorite song off his latest album, Peru. But he didn’t perform my all-time favorite song of his, Champion – instead, they played the track as he walked off stage, which was gutting because it felt so close!
He was the only male artist to come out with a sweater/jacket and keep it on the entire time he was on stage. Nearly half the men were shirtless by the end of their set, but Fireboy took the heat like a pro. From Nigeria, Fireboy describes his music as Afro-life; some say it has mainly R&B vibes, but I think there’s a lot more to it than that. His lyrics are incredible and I sometimes forget that his debut album was released in 2019, because he’s had two other albums since – and I can’t wait to see what he puts out next!
Song recommendations: Peru, Champion, Bandana, & ELI
Rema
All I can say is that I was NOT prepared for Rema. I thought I knew what to expect – the whole world knows who Rema is thanks to his remix of Calm Down with Selena Gomez. It’s been #1 on the Billboard US Afrobeats Chart for 39 continuous weeks (so far). Also from Nigeria, he was the second youngest performer (tied with Gyakie) – only older than Black Sherif.
He calls his music style Afrorave, a subgenre of Afrobeats with influences of Arabian and Indian music – his fans are called Ravers (which he has as a tattoo on his stomach – did I mention most of the men performed shirtless?). But the real surprise? He’s a closeted metal fan. His band was comprised of incredibly talented metal musicians (one of whom was wearing a Metallica t-shirt). There was a lot of screaming and shredding and many of his songs were nearly unrecognizable. It was memorable to say the least.
Song recommendations: Calm Down & Soundgasm (though my personal favorite song of his is called Soweto and is on Victony’s album)
Wizkid
Chandler and I debated the pros and cons of sticking around for the last performance of the night – Wizkid. We’d gotten to bed between 1:30-2:30am the last three nights and we were beat. But, if you don’t already know this about me, I get EXTREME FOMO – I deeply fear missing out. So we decided to listen to a Wizkid album to see if there were any songs we got excited about. We literally forgot the album was on.
If Burna Boy is the best known Afrobeats artist right now, Wizkid and Davido are two of the most influential artists. Part of me felt like we HAD to see him. But sticking around meant waiting 30 minutes for the stage change, an hour for the show, and an extra 30 minutes trying to leave the stadium with 20,000 others. In the end, exhaustion won out.
Wizkid, also from Nigeria, is six months younger than me and has been recording music since the age of 11 (hence the name). He’s won a GRAMMY for Best Music Video (if I did my homework correctly, he was the only artist at Afro Nation who’d won a GRAMMY other than Burna Boy – Best World Music Album – and Shenseea’s been nominated too).
Song recommendations: Essence (because it’s his most-played song on Spotify)
After our weekend of Afrobeats, we were beat – but absolutely beaming. The whole weekend, highs and lows, was incredible (and yes, we got festival t-shirts to commemorate it).
If reading this post has peaked your interest in an Afro Nation festival, there are at least two more happening in 2023: Portugal in June and Detroit, USA in August – tickets go on sale TOMORROW (Friday, June 2).
Abroad With Ashley 