2023-06-30 16:00:06
During the Pépélé Festival in Aubervilliers (Seine-Saint-Denis), in 2022. CASABEY / DAMIEN PAILLARD
For its poster, the Pépélé Festival has chosen a long-haul plane. The event, which takes place from June 30 to July 2, at the Point Fort d’Aubervilliers (Seine-Saint-Denis) devotes, for the second year in a row, its programming to two African musical genres, the Nigerian afrobeats and the South African amapiano. And it invites you to travel, in the clubs of Lagos first, but also in all the Afro discotheques around the world, and not only.
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The success of afrobeats is such that stars of the genre Wizkid, Burna Boy or Davido win Grammy Awards in the United States or achieve sales and streaming records in Europe. In France, they play sold out at Paris la Défense Arena for Burna Boy or at the Accor Arena for Wizkid. The genre is also being emulated by Afrobeats DJs, with a final “s”, not to be confused with the Afrobeat of Fela Kuti, to whom the Philharmonie de Paris had devoted an exhibition, from October 20, 2022 to June 11.
During the last Fête de la Musique, on June 21, rue Chanzy, in the 11th arrondissement of Paris, took on the air of the Afro-Caribbean carnival in London. The Spiritual Gangsta collective, led by DJ Anaïs B, made a compact, stylish and synchronized audience take off all night long on the dance steps of these Afrobeats born in Nigeria but which today borrow from the entire Afro-descendant diaspora.
Read the survey: Article reserved for our subscribers The boom of amapiano, a South African mix of house, lounge, jazz and soul
This same Anaïs B will play during the first evening of the Pépélé Festival, which is as much a music festival as a fashion show, as the ceremonial surrounding the plane trip is so important. : “All the children of the diaspora have known this moment of leaving on vacation… dressing well, waiting for hours at the airportexplains Nadim, the organizer of the festival. Afrobeats is the same: it goes one way and comes back the other. This music would not have known this success if it had remained in its local environment. »
“African pop”
Davido, who released the album in March Timelessnever stops accumulating millions of streamings thanks to its title Unbelievable, which has become a phenomenon on TikTok. Like Wizkid and Burna Boy, he belongs to the Nigerian middle class who studied abroad, while remaining very attached to his roots. Son of a millionaire entrepreneur, Davido was born in Atlanta, United States, then returned to the country before leaving to study in Alabama.
Bottle of cognac in hand, from a French brand that sponsors him, diamond necklaces around his neck like his idol 50 Cent, the singer tells the story of his parents with pride in a living room of his French record company: “In my mother’s village, all the inhabitants met every six months to contribute and send a good student to study abroad. My parents thus met in London before emigrating to America. »
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