Is amapiano the sound of the year?

There’s a new kind of music from South Africa that’s got everyone talking.

It’s called amapiano and it evolved from the country’s deep house and jazz music scene.

Radio host Boipelo in Johannesburg says it’s great music to dance to without breaking too much sweat.

She says people “have found their identity in this music”. She says its “trajectory” has grown over the past five years - and now it “can be heard everywhere”.

For South African music star Focalistic, it’s the “many aspects of amapiano” that make it good to work with.

He says you can break down the many chords: “It can be grimey and it can really sound gangsta - or you can sound like you’re making sweet music."

At the core of its popularity, he says, is dance - and that’s why it's taken off all over Africa.

Focalistic started his career as a hip-hop artist, and he told me this was a difficult genre of music to express himself in because he had to use English.

But with amapiano, he says, he uses his own language and that for too long “they put Hollywood in our face”.

He’s also been collaborating with artists from other countries, like Nigeria's Davido.

For Focalistic, this collaboration will “always boost a song”.

Source: BBC