Amapiano Awards & Festival Cape Town 2023

Amapiano Awards & Festival Cape Town 2023

In 2019 Amapiano Awards began to dominate South Africa’s dance floors to such an extent that, by 2021, the first South African Amapiano Awards and festival were held to mark the rise of the country’s most infectious new music export. In 2022, the South African dance music genre continued to expand its galloping world-wide reach. The annual awards are now an established event in South Africa’s music calendar.

Amapiano is a soulful mash-up of rhythms, tonalities, and moods that can alternately be frantic, calm, melodic, or purely entrancing. Additionally, its distinctive percussive bass defines it. Short staccato beats (or signatures) made from the synthesized sounds of the African log drum are used to mark song breaks. In a nutshell, it has an uplifting piano melody, a sluggish dance beat, and a rolling drum sound. It is a brand-new DJ-driven dance music sound. Its expanding influence is a happy celebration of South Africa’s extensive contributions to world dance music over the years.

Amapiano in South Africa Today

Amapiano sprang out of the townships of South Africa’s Gauteng province as early as 2012 and is continually evolving through musical innovation, public adulation and commercial viability. The craze has spread to parts of southern Africa and to countries in west Africa such as Nigeria and Ghana. In Nigeria, artists are releasing amapiano tracks and albums with an Afrobeats flavour. The east African nations of Kenya and Tanzania are also catching the bug. And amapiano artists are touring the globe.

Today, the most exciting celebrities to be found in the South African music scene come from amapiano. Focalistic, DBN Gogo, Pabi Cooper, Reece Madlisa, Zuma, Daliwonga, Lady Du, Nkosazana Daughter, Sir Trill and many more new heavy hitters all drink from the fount of amapiano.

Those in the spotlight

At a glance, the nominees for the 2023 South African Amapiano Awards feature all the usual suspects. The self-styled king of amapiano Kabza De Small leads with nine nominations, followed by Young Stunna with eight, DJ Maphorisa and Daliwonga. On the list are also a number of up-and-coming contenders, including Toss, Mas Musiq, Kelvin Momo, Q-Mark, and TipCee. For the first time, a few notable Nigerian and Ghanaian musicians—Davido, Wizkid, Goya Menor, and Nektunez—are also included on this spectacular spread.

It is simple to believe that amapiano is evolving far too quickly for its own good at times. The corporates are undoubtedly keeping an eye on its new goods and formulating strategies to capitalize on the amapiano craze. After all, other young music trends like American hip-hop and South Korean K-pop have become extremely commercialized.

Date of 2023 Amapiano Awards & Festival Cape Town 

However, before this can happen, South Africa’s amapiano artists continue to dispense the sheer bliss of making music, collaborating widely and moving freely between clubs and countries. For now, there is joy, release and optimism in amapiano. It’s a glorious moment to witness a genre burst loose with distinctive flair, ebullience and ingenuity from the impoverished townships of Gauteng with a goal to take over the world.

The 2023 South African Amapiano Awards & Festival will take place at Cape Town on April 2, 2023. Follow on Twitter.