that was pioneered by the legendary fela kuti. the latest incarnation of afrobeats is less politically charged. omah lay sings about love, heartbreak and longing. with western megastars like ed sheeran and madonna tapping into this musical style, what does it mean for the way that afrobeats will evolve? omah lay, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. fela kuti described his afrobeat music as, a fusion and combination of highlife, jazz, funk, psych rock, salsa, black power, anti colonial and anti corruption politics. how would you describe your music?
but it doesn t change the fact that it s music and nobody owns it, it sjust music, it s sound, everybody enjoys it how they want to enjoy it. so, the plan to carry on making music. you ve just signed a deal with kobalt music. yeah, ijust did. it s a long ride, i m just barely two years in, two or three years in. but a few years ago, ghana s president, he made a global declaration talking about the year of the return, encouraging the diaspora to get involved in the culture of their homeland. it sounds almost, the way you re talking about afrobeats, as though you do have a form of mission, a mission to introduce the world to afrobeats. that s afrobeat to the world, that s what we keep saying, african music to the world, afrobeat to the world. that s the plan, to wake up one morning and the whole world
i don t feel like anybody s taking anything from anybody. it s music, at the end of the day, it s just music. anybody can make any music they want to. when billboard magazine, they focused on afrobeats because it is doing so well. mm hm. but when they talked about it, the sounds and influence have grown in the us market through artists such as beyonce and drake. there was a lot of unease among some people who thought, why are you crediting western singers when actually, it s african singers? yeah, it s african music, but you can t deny the fact that these people, like i said, this is two different audiences, yeah? you can t deny the fact that drake, beyonce, anybody else who did african music in their territory, made it some sort of popular there. you can t deny the fact that african music wasn t this global ten years ago. it wasn t.
and like i said, it is not necessary that it needs this person to make it go there, but it s just easier when these people put hands together. and you can t change the fact that the influence of drake, beyonce, and everybody in the western world who have been talking afrobeat, you can t deny the fact that they made people more interested. people all over the world discovered afrobeat more. you can t deny that fact. 0k, any reason to turn down a collaboration, then? if me, personally, as an artist, my collaborations are not because i want this and i want that, like, i usually make my music for music s sake. i usually make music because it s music. it does what it has to do. i cannot decide how you will enjoy the music, i can t decide it for you. and my collaborations are not because i want this territory and i want that territory,
knows what afrobeat is, the whole world is dancing to afrobeat, the whole world is listening to afrobeat. that s the dream, that s the future, that s the plan. 0mah lay, thank you for coming on hardtalk. thank you for having me. hello there. monday s heat was extraordinary, not least because it covered a really wide area. 38.2 celsius the highest temperature recorded in santon downham in suffolk, very close to the all time uk record.