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\nThe Best West African Songs Right Now<\/h4>\n
July\u2019s best songs from West Africa list is an exciting and truly diverse selection of indie talent, romantic stories, and energetic comebacks from Benin, Ghana, and Senegal<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Then Mejja reached out<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said he had seen my challenge,\u201d Wangari tells OkayAfrica. He was happy people were doing a dance challenge to his song and wanted her to appear in the upcoming music video.\u00a0 By the time the official video arrived, the song already had an audience and a recognizable move. The music video went viral with just under 10 million views in three months<\/p>\n
\u201cNot to brag,\u201d Wangari says, \u201cbut I feel like we really took a very big part in making that song viral.\u201d<\/p>\n
@lolo.mwangi<\/a> WOLAN WOLAN WOLAN!!! #siaka<\/a> w\/ @Tracy\ud83e\udd79 @zenahkarimi_ @Janice_\uff92\ud835\udff6 @Shawell\ud83e\udddd\ud83c\udffd\u200d\u2640\ufe0f #lolo_mwangi<\/a>#fyp<\/a>#200k<\/a>#mamanjuguna<\/a>\u266c Siaka – Mejja & Fik Fameica<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The order matters. The challenge came first. The viral clips followed. By the time the official video arrived, audiences were already very familiar with it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In Kenya\u2019s music industry, the old routes to a hit no longer carry songs the way they once did. TikTok has become one of the fastest ways for music to reach people, and dancers and creators are the ones making that reach happen. Through clips \u2014 mostly dance challenges \u2014 they make songs familiar before traditional rollout channels catch up. Artists and labels are recognizing this, treating TikTok as a central part of how a song is marketed and pushed toward a hit.<\/p>\n
\u201c[TikTok is] at the top\u2026100%,\u201d says Trevor Magak of Kodongklan, when asked where TikTok sits in the hierarchy of music marketing. A traditional media run still has value when promoting new music, but he is clear about the comparison. \u201cYou can do 100 interviews,\u201d he says. \u201cIt will not ever be able to beat what TikTok can do.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Gap TikTok Filled<\/h2>\n
For ColloBlue, the artist, dancer, and founder of The Cluster Talent Africa, the shift was evident before the industry realized it. With The Cluster, he has built a creator-led music marketing machine around dancers and TikTok<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a scientist. I see things in patterns,\u201d he tells OkayAfrica<\/p>\n
About five years ago, ColloBlue began noticing a mismatch. Artists were still relying on the usual marketing channels, but audiences were already moving differently online. On TikTok and Instagram, music was becoming the raw material for everyday posts<\/p>\n
\u201cThe main et their music,\u201d\u00a0 he remembers thinking. \u201cSo I just need to position myself as the person who takes this music and puts it out.\u201d<\/p>\n
That became the foundation of The Cluster: a company built around TikTok as a new marketing route, with creators and dancers helping songs move faster. ColloBlue\u2019s specialty became music, where dancers could turn songs into clips people wanted to watch, copy, and share<\/p>\n
\u201cOur core business is we scout, recruit, build, grow and sell talent,\u201d he says. \u201cIn the process of selling talent, we are advertising, and we are doing music marketing.\u201d<\/p>\n
@thecluster_ke<\/a> @Yemi Alade just joined the chat location: @NSK | Nairobi Street Kitchen #theclusterke<\/a>#colloblue_udc<\/a>#maloneedits<\/a>\u266c original sound – colloblue_udc<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The Cluster has also helped turn its 20+ dancers and creators into recognizable names in Kenya\u2019s music scene. Figures like Nasieku (4 million TikTok followers) and Klaus (2.6 million TikTok followers) now have reach that rivals that of some artists<\/p>\n
@_nasiek.u<\/a> TWAS\u2019 AN AMAZING ONE!\u2764\ufe0f\ud83e\udef6\ud83c\udffd #fyp\u30b7\u309a<\/a>#nasieku<\/a>#justcallmeklaus<\/a>#theclusterke<\/a>\u266c original sound – _nasieku\u2728<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The dancers are no longer just extras,\u201d ColloBlue says. \u201cThey are distribution. An artist has one page; The Cluster can put your song on fifty pages in a day, each with its own community.\u201d<\/p>\n
ColloBlue has also used the same system on himself. With 3.9 million TikTok followers, he started releasing his own music six months ago. His first song, \u201cUp Burukanga\u201d with Addeh Prince<\/a>, has reached about 10 million views, while \u201cDance Samawaah\u201d with Ndovu Kuu<\/a> has passed 5 million views in two months. KBC, Kenya\u2019s national broadcaster, also commissioned him to create its official World Cup song<\/a>. The song had half a million views in less than two weeks.<\/p>\n
What Artists and Labels Are Buying<\/h2>\n
From the artist and label side, the value of dancers is blunt: reach<\/p>\n
Magak says TikTok is not an absolute requirement for a hit, but it now sits above most other forms of promotion because of how widely it travels. \u201cTikTok resonates even with the people who are in [the village],\u201d he says<\/p>\n
That is where collectives like The Cluster and creators like Wangari come in. Labels and musicians are paying for repeated exposure. As ColloBlue puts it, \u201cA radio plug might play your song once or twice. A dancer makes ten thousand people repeat the same eight seconds of your track every day for a week. That\u2019s marketing.\u201d<\/p>\n
As artists and labels recognize this, the brief has changed. ColloBlue says many artists now come to The Cluster with the same request: \u201cThey come and say, \u2018I want my song to go viral, tell me what to do.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The Cluster\u2019s answer is to start working with them as early as possible before release day. Sometimes they even join in with studio sessions to give feedback on whether the song has the makings of a hit. \u201cWe don\u2019t post randomly,\u201d ColloBlue says. \u201cWe test sounds, moves, angles, [and] posting times. We watch what sticks.\u201d<\/p>\n
It may be a short snippet, or a dance challenge built around the catchiest part of the track<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea of dance challenges is to make [the] masses dance,\u201d ColloBlue says. \u201cThat\u2019s where most people go wrong. Most people say that [The Cluster] are just TikTokers; they\u2019re not dancers… but that is the whole point.\u201d<\/p>\n
What Dance Can and Cannot Do<\/h3>\n
Wangari believes virality is only as strong as the song. She cannot make just any song blow up<\/p>\n
\u201cI think good dancers go hand in hand with a good artist,\u201d Wangari says. \u201cYou have to have a good song first\u2026 We just amplify.\u201d<\/p>\n
Magak makes the same point from the label side. A TikTok campaign can increase the chances of a song doing well, but \u201cit doesn\u2019t always guarantee that the thing is going to move.\u201d<\/p>\n
But as that amplification by the creators and dancers creates real value, the industry is still debating what the work is worth. For Wangari, the point is that dancers are doing marketing that artists might otherwise pay for elsewhere\u2013often with less visible results. When a challenge takes off, the artist benefits from the song\u2019s reach, streams and recognition, while the dancer\u2019s platform helps make that visibility possible. That, she argues, should come with credit and compensation. That became especially clear to her after the success of \u201cSiaka.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNow we know we are not just dancers\u2026we\u2019re playing a really big role in making these songs go viral. So at the end of the day, we need credit for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
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