Burna Boy Overtakes Tyla To Become Africa’s Most-Streamed Artist On Spotify
Adedokun Waliyu
2 min read
Grammy Award-winning Nigerian singer Burna Boy has become the African artist with the highest number of monthly listeners on Spotify, setting a new record with 46.84 million monthly listeners.
The achievement sees Burna Boy surpass South African star Tyla, whose previous record stood at 46.58 million monthly listeners on the streaming platform.
The remarkable increase in Burna Boy’s monthly audience has been driven largely by the global success of “Dai Dai,” his collaboration with Colombian superstar Shakira. The song serves as the official anthem of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, and its performance during the tournament’s opening ceremony significantly boosted its popularity across international music charts, attracting listeners from Nigeria, Africa and the wider global audience.
Although “Dai Dai” has played a major role in setting the new record, Burna Boy’s streaming success is also supported by his catalogue of hit songs. Before the World Cup anthem’s release, his 2022 Grammy-nominated single, “Last Last,” was his most-streamed song on Spotify, approaching 600 million streams.
The record-breaking milestone also comes at a crucial time as the singer prepares to release his next studio album and embark on his global “Unity Tour” later this year.
Benefiting from the worldwide attention generated by the FIFA World Cup and extensive radio airplay, “Dai Dai” has climbed to the top of several European music charts. The song currently ranks number one in Spain, number two in France, number three in Italy, number four in the United Kingdom, number five in Switzerland and number eight in Germany.
Burna Boy now leads the list of African artists with the highest monthly Spotify listeners, ahead of Tems, who has 40.64 million monthly listeners. Ayra Starr and “Calm Down” hitmaker Rema also continue to enjoy strong global streaming success, with Rema recording 29.43 million monthly listeners.
On the global all-time rankings for peak monthly listeners on Spotify, Bruno Mars remains the most-streamed artist in the platform’s history with a peak of 133.6 million monthly listeners. He is followed by Justin Bieber with 128.4 million, while The Weeknd ranks third with 113.9 million. Rihanna occupies fourth place with 110.3 million monthly listeners, while the late Michael Jackson completes the top five with 109.6 million monthly listeners.
