Afropop Worldwide

Afropop Worldwide Where Music Tells the Story of the World Over 30 years of connecting you to music of Africa and the World!

🎙️NEW INTERVIEW: KONGO DIA NTOTILAIn recent years, Afropop has been in touch with an unusual band in the U.K. playing Co...
06/18/2026

🎙️NEW INTERVIEW: KONGO DIA NTOTILA

In recent years, Afropop has been in touch with an unusual band in the U.K. playing Congolese music, with a twist. The music of KDN Sound (Kongo Dia Ntotila) Kongo Dia Ntotila (KDN) is hot and driving, strong on the characteristic elements of Congo sounds, from rumba to ndombolo, but there are adventurous jazz touches as well, improvisation, chromaticism, turn-on-a-dime arrangements and more. The music stretches towards new horizons without losing its essence. The band’s brass section is particularly inventive, playing lines buried deep in the groove and in tight conversation with the guitars and occasional vocals. KDN’s music is primarily instrumental.

The band debuted in 2011 with the album Seben Steps to Heaven. Mulele Matondo Afrika (a.k.a. Ponpon Matondo), born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, wrote and arranged most of the music on that first album. He was then already a veteran of bands in Congo, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana. But KDN’s music has grown out his partnership with British jazz guitarist John Kelly.

KDN shared with us an advance copy of their upcoming third album, Moving Fire. (Their second, 360o, came out in 2019.) The album drops in September, but the first single is out now. Check out “Mathrobeat.”

The new album stands out for the band’s mastery of genres, its relentless high energy, and more of those surprising stylistic turns, all while keeping the music danceable. They call their music “Afro joy.” Afropop’s wanted to know more, so he reached Mulele Matondo, John Kelly and the band’s manager Birikiti Pegram over Zoom for a chat. Their convo is at
https://www.afropop.org/articles/kongo-dia-ntotila-kdn-congo-music-rocks-the-uk

Afrojoy Mathrobeat

AFROPOP x THE WORLD CUP ⚽️🦁 THE MUSIC OF TEN AFRICAN NATIONSFor the first time ever, 10 African nations are competing on...
06/18/2026

AFROPOP x THE WORLD CUP ⚽️🦁
THE MUSIC OF TEN AFRICAN NATIONS

For the first time ever, 10 African nations are competing on football’s biggest stage.

From South Africa, Morocco, Côte d’Ivoire, Tunisia, Cabo Verde, Egypt, Senegal, Algeria, Ghana, and DR Congo, Africa is bringing world-class talent, unforgettable style, and some of the most influential music on the planet.

Afropop has curated a selection of programs that highlight the music of all ten countries and over the coming weeks, we’ll be spotlighting the sounds behind the teams: from the morna of Cabo Verde and the Gnawa of Morocco to Congolese rumba, Senegalese mbalax and sabar, Algerian raï, Ghanaian highlife, Ivorian hits, and much more.

Link in bio, or visit
https://bit.ly/afropopworldcup

Featured artists include…
🇨🇻 Cesária Évora (Cesária Évora)
🇨🇻 Mayra Andrade (MAYRA ANDRADE)
🇪🇬 Mohamed Mounir (Mohamed Mounir)
🇪🇬 Ramy Essam (R A M Y | E S S A M)
🇸🇳 Aba Diop (Aba Diop & the Yermande Family)
🇸🇳 Baaba Maal ()
🇸🇳 Youssou N’Dour (Youssou Ndour ️️️️🇸🇳)
🇨🇮 Dobet Gnahoré (dobet)
🇩🇿 Khaled (Khaled | الشاب خالد)
🇬🇭 Gyedu-Blay Ambolley (Blay Ambolley)
🇨🇩 Fally Ipupa (Fally Ipupa)

AND SO MANY MORE!

To get this program and a special playlist featuring World Cup African nations music delivered straight to your inbox, visit bit.ly/afropopnewsletter.

Seen here: the fierce drip from the DR Congolese football team designed by Alvin Junior Mak 📍🇫🇷 🐆

06/15/2026

🦁>🐓
ABA DIOP PREDICTS SENEGAL BEATS FRANCE 2-1: “The lion eats the chicken!”
Do you agree?

Check out featured artist Aba Diop & the Yermande Family (currently playing in England) in afropopworldwide’s new article showcasing music from the ten African nations competing in the ⚽️🎶 >>> bit.ly/afropopworldcup

06/05/2026

🇧🇮🇨🇦 From Montreal’s legendary collective to stages in Cape Verde, Aiza Ntibarikure is building a sound rooted in diaspora, sovereignty, and self-definition.

The word “sovereign” is both a noun and adjective. As a noun, it can mean a king or queen. And as an adjective it could be used to describe a person who is independent and autonomous. And, for sure, we can think of no better way to describe Aiza Ntibarikure, whose stage name is just Aiza other than that – an independent queen. And it’s also right there in the title of her debut 2024 album, Sovereignty.

In this new interview, Aiza reflects on:

✨ Growing up Burundian in Quebec
✨ Finding her artistic family in Montreal’s improvisational Kalmunity scene
✨ Returning to Burundi with her father after 30 years away
✨ Balancing acting, producing, and music
✨ The creation of her debut album Sovereignty
✨ Why live performance is still “the realest part of all of this”

The conversation also touches on her love of Cape Verdean morna, the influence of Cesária Évora, and the emotional connection behind her new song “Saudade,” premiered at Atlantic Music Expo 2026.

“I’m a part of something. These talents, these passions don’t come from out of the blue. They’ve been passed down.” — Aiza

Read the full interview now at >>> afropop.org/articles/aiza-a-sovereign-sovereign

Featuring:the.reason







African diaspora
African music

05/26/2026

🇦🇴 HIP DEEP ANGOLA PART 1: MUSIC AND NATION IN LUANDA

Music became a weapon in the struggle for independence in Angola. In this episode, we explore how musicians, dancers, radio broadcasters, and poets helped forge a new Angolan consciousness during the anti-colonial struggles of the 1960s and ’70s after centuries of Portuguese colonial rule.

Our guides are producer Ned Sublette, reporting from Angola, and historian Marissa Moorman, author of Intonations: A Social History of Music in Luanda, Angola from 1945 to Recent Times.

Featuring the legendary Ngola Ritmos, semba-era voices, and blazing 1960s guitar instrumentals, the episode traces how artists faced censorship, surveillance, imprisonment, and exile under Portuguese colonial authorities while their music became the soundtrack of liberation.

Listen now on Afropop Worldwide >>> https://www.afropop.org/audio-programs/hip-deep-angola-music-and-nation-in-luanda


Angolan Music
African History
Decolonization
Portuguese Colonialism
World Music

05/18/2026

“Africans call the shots.” 🌍⚔️

A TALE OF TWO REBELLIONS: HOW AFRICANS SHAPED THE FUTURE OF ISLAM

In this epic Hip Deep episode of Afropop Worldwide, Georges Collinet and author Joseph Braude trace two revolutionary uprisings that changed the course of Islamic history: the Zanj Rebellion in 9th century Iraq and the Fatimid Revolution in North Africa.

From enslaved East Africans in Basra rising against the Abbasid Empire, to Kutama Berber fighters helping build the Fatimid Caliphate, this story connects African history, Islam, rebellion, empire, slavery, Shi’a history, and the roots of the Sunni-Shi’a divide.

The episode moves from Baghdad to Zanzibar, Tunisia to Cairo, weaving together history, myth, and music with an unforgettable soundtrack featuring:

🇮🇶 Munir Bashir
🇪🇬 Umm Kulthum
🇮🇷 Hossain Alizadeh
🇦🇲 Djivan Gasparyan
🇩🇿 Djur Djura
🇪🇬 The Musicians of the Nile

This is the hidden history of African influence in the medieval Islamic world.

🎧 Listen now at https://www.afropop.org/audio-programs/a-tale-of-two-rebellions-how-africans-helped-shape-the-future-of-islam

Shiite Sunni Shia SWANA

05/14/2026

TODAY ONLY! For the next 24 hours, all recurring donations at $5 and up are matched by with $10! KEEP CULTURE ALIVE, make your tax deductible donation today >>> bit.ly/afropopspringappeal26 (link in bio!)

Percussion by the master sagar percussionist and composer

05/11/2026

Musical improvisation comes in many forms. A jazz player creates within the harmonic structure of a composition. A Shona mbira player in Zimbabwe improvises interactively with another player, and the audience, in some cases, an ancestor spirit. An Arabic maqam musician works within the elaborate set of rules governing the movement of melodies within one or more particular maqamat, or modes. How are these musicians’ experience the same? And how are they different? Musicians and scholars weigh in on this Hip Deep program. Produced by .

Listen: https://www.afropop.org/audio-programs/the-art-of-improvisation-part-2
Artists featured:

Farid el Atrache
Munir Bashir
Simon Shaheen
A.J. Racy
John Coltrane
Baba Larab
Randy Weston
Hakurotwi Mude
Mhembero Mbira Ensemble
Thelonious Monk
Miles Davis
Mubayiwa Bandambira
Cosmas and Alexio Magaya
Eric Dolphy

Countries:

🇺🇸 United States
🇪🇬 Egypt
🇮🇶 Iraq
🇱🇧 Lebanon
🇿🇼 Zimbabwe

Genres:





05/07/2026

THE MAN. THE VOICE. THE ICON.

GEORGES COLLINET.

We want to hear from you!

For nearly four decades, Georges Collinet has been the voice guiding listeners through the world of African music on Afropop Worldwide. But his story goes way back.

Before bringing African sounds to American audiences, he was introducing artists like James Brown, Stevie Wonder, and Aretha Franklin to listeners across Africa through his work with Voice of America. From Douala to Bamako to Kinshasa, his name opened doors and built bridges long before “global music” was a buzzword.

Born in Cameroon and shaped by life in France and the U.S., Collinet has spent a lifetime championing African artists and fostering musical exchange across continents. Now in his ninth decade, we are celebrating his legacy with a special program.

If his voice has ever moved you, taught you, or changed the way you hear the world, we want to hear from you. Record a short message and send it to [email protected] with the subject line “Georges Collinet.”

Stay tuned for the broadcast and help us give Georges his flowers 💐

05/04/2026

at on May 1, 2026! Rocking the (donkey jaw) and the (little alms box)! 🔥🫏📦🎶

Fantastic night of and electronic music — check their tour dates for a show near you!

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