With over 38 million users globally, Boomplay remains the favorite music streaming service in Africa. The music scene in Kenya has continued to grow over the years and 2018 has been no different with digital music streaming and sales being a major revenue source for many artistes.
As 2018 came to a close, Boomplay revealed its annual stats for Kenya, which showcased the music trends and artists that defined the year in Kenya based on Boomplay stats.
The year 2018 was been an amazing one for many Kenyan artistes with total music streams rising above 1.1 billion with over 134,000 user-generated playlist globally, an almost 70% increase compared to the previous year.
Hits like Malaika and Bebi Bebi by Nyashinski propelled him to the list of Top 10 Trending artist of 2018 in Kenya. Khaligraph’s “Testimony 1990” Album claimed the number 1 spot for Top Albums of 2018 in Kenya, whereas Short and Sweet by Sauti Sol is the second most-streamed song in Kenya.
Narudisha by Gloria Muliro, Melanin by Sauti Sol ft Patoranking and Malaika by Nyashinski also topped as the most trending songs in Kenya based on the number of times each song appeared in the Top 100 Kenyan chart.
Short and Sweet by Sauti Sol ft Nyashinski, Malingo by Willy Paul, Ten over Ten by Bahati and Rider by Khaligraph ft Petra claimed the spot as “Top Music Videos” in Kenya based on the number of views garnered.
Afropop and Afrofusion was the most listened-to genre that dominated 2018, but Gospel music experienced a sharp increase - with Bahati and Evelyn Wanjiru topping the list of Top 10 Gospel artiste of 2018.
See below for the full list of 2018 Kenya music fact sheet:
Top 10 trending artistes of 2018 is a mix of Kenyan, Tanzanian and Nigerian artistes. While Nyashinki leads the pack, Tanzania's Harmonize and Aslay take the second and third spot.
Top 10 albums of 2018 are an interesting mix of local and international artistes. Rapper Khaligraph Jones' Testimony 1990 takes the top spot with Evelyne Wanjiru's Mungu Mkuu following. Tanzanian Nandi takes the third spot.
Afropop and Afrofusion topped the list as the most popular genre of 2018 followed by Christian and Gospel and Afrobeat coming in third.
Nyashinki once again made waves with his two mega hits Malaika and Mungu Pekee leading the pack of top trending songs of 2018. Gloria Muliro’s Narudisha came in third.
In the gospel scene, Bahati, Evelyn Wanjiru led the list of top gospel artistes of 2018. Nigerian singer Sinach came in third followed by Gloria Muliro.
The most played gospel song of 2018 came from Nyashinski with Mungu Pekee. Narudisha by Gloria Muliro came second, followed by Vimbada from Moji Shortbaba ft Jabidii.
