Afrobeats star Tiwa Savage has said African music is not in decline but is instead undergoing a necessary correction phase aimed at sustaining the industry’s long-term growth.
Speaking as a keynote speaker at the Oxford Africa Conference, Savage explained that the slowdown in the genre’s rapid expansion had created an opportunity to focus on strengthening infrastructure within the African music industry.
She noted that similar cycles had occurred in other global music genres, including hip-hop, R&B and pop, stressing that such adjustments were a normal part of industry development.
According to the singer, the current changes should not be mistaken for a collapse of African music.
Reflecting on her participation at the conference, Savage wrote: “I had the absolute pleasure of being a keynote speaker at the Oxford Africa Conference. It was important to highlight that while some may think African music is suffering a decline.
“We are actually in a healthy cycle where now that the noise from the rapid growth seems to have reduced we now need to focus on building the infrastructure to sustain this industry. Many genres have experienced this, from HipHop, to RnB to Pop. Our industry is no different. We now see that we have a lot to correct but let’s not confuse correction with collapse.”
