Globally renowned music publication platform, Rollingstone has listed grammy winning singer, Burna Boy and Afrobeat Pioneer, Fela Kuti in its roll call of top 200 singers of all time.
Burna Boy was placed at no. 197 while Fela Anikulapo Kuti was placed at number 188.
Describing Burna Boy, Rollingstone said:
“A Nigerian cultural giant, Burna Boy is the ambassador of Afrobeats as a global movement that can feel equally at home climbing the European charts and maintaining a subtle emotional connection with past African genres like highlife. Burna’s voice is sweet like caramel, but it can also soar on slickly produced tracks like his recent megahit “Last Last,” or the 2019 gem “Anybody,” amped up by deep bass accents and insanely sophisticated polyrhythms. His vocal lines find inspiration in everything from hip-hop and R&B to hooky pop and dancehall — the world is his playground”
Rollingstone describe Fela Kuti as:
“Fela Kuti’s iconic songs of the 1970s and 1980s are sprawling orchestral instrumentals, an innovative swirl of African highlife, American soul, and jazz. Through his music, he shared an anti-colonialist, Pan-African vision and challenged Nigeria’s corrupt military government, which routinely subjected him and those around him to immense harm. Yet it wasn’t just Fela’s lyrical rebellion that makes him so important — it’s the way his voice carried his vision; the way he sang, his tone commanding and direct, plain and firm. His stern but conversational melodies made his movement more accessible. On 1986’s “Teacher Don’t Teach Me Nonsense,” where he tackles whitewashed education and failed governments, he coos, “I say, I sing, I beg everyone to join my song.” And he performed in such a way that they could”
The inclusion of Fela and Burna boy captures the success and impact of different eras of Nigerian music in Africa and the world.
The list was topped by American Singer, Aretha Franklin with Whitney Houston ranked second, Sam Cook is 3rd, Billie Holiday is 4th, and Mariah Carey is 5th.
