Diamond Platnumz was bare-chested when he was surprised by his record producers last week. They went to his house with a cake designed with a YouTube logo to mark the musician’s milestone.
In the video, the award-winning musician, who is now 30 years old, was getting dressed as his team proudly told him about his new achievement.
Diamond Platnumz is the very first sub-Sagaran singer who garnered one billion views on the video-sharing platform YouTube.
For the past 10 years, Diamond Platnumz has popularized a unique Tanzanian offering called Bongo Flava. This is characterized by romantic melodies mixed with an urban beat. It also influences traditional taarab music that came from the coast of East Africa.
DJ Edu, the host of This is Africa, a weekly pan-African music show for the BBC World Service, praised the award-winning musician. According to him, Diamond Platnumz is a hardworking artist. He added that he also has great showmanship.
It is no surprise that the Tanzanian musician reached the said milestone. Tanzania has a total population of 55 million. 43 percent of this population have access to the internet and mobile phone. For this reason, there is a massive number of home-grown and Swahili-speaking audiences who are ready to support his love songs,
In fact, other Tanzanian musicians such as Harmonize are also top-rated on the said video-sharing platform.
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Diamond Platnumz still falls behind some of the North African stars, who have a significant number of followings in the Middle East.
For instance, Malian-born singer Aya Nakamura is an African artist who overrides Diamond Platnumz. She has more than 1.7 views on YouTube.
Aya Nakamura, 25 years old, moved to France when she was still young. She is best known for Djdja, a hit single that she released in 2018.
On the other hand, the Senegalese-American rapper Akon trumps both with more than 3.5 billion views on the said platform.
Diamond Platnumz also has competitors in sub-Saharan Africa when it comes to buying billions of YouTube views in the form of high-quality content. These competitors are all Nigerian Afrobeats stars. Some of them are P Square and Davido, who have 810 million and 618 million views, respectively. Other Nigerian Afrobeats stars leading in the YouTube numbers game are Flavour with 617 million views, Tekno with 574 million views, and Burna Boy with 507 million views. In addition to them are StarBoy TV, AKA Wizkid who has 480 million YouTube views.
BurnaBoy and Davido have only started their YouTube channels in 2018. This makes their follower count pretty impressive since they started later than the others. On the other hand, Diamond Platnumz’s YouTube channel was created in 2011.
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Moreover, StarBoy TV is the record label of Wizkid. Adding all the figures of both his YouTube channels, you will get a total of 802 million views.
Some stars choose to promote their songs on their own YouTube channels rather than record labels. This is because record labels take time before they can issue new releases.
Other musicians who have notable figures when it comes to YouTube views are Ivory Coast. This group from the Magic System has more than 477 million views. They are particularly famous in France as well as in French-speaking West Africa.
According to DJ Edu, history tells us that they built Ivory Coast’s following literally because of their song Premier Gaou, released in 2001. This song, according to DJ Edu, really connected the entire continent.
DJ Edu added that while lower South African figures on YouTube try to hide their fame, they can still make money through local labels.
Besides, YouTube is not the only streaming service one can promote music on. In fact, WizKid collaborated with the Canadian rapper Drake in 2016 for the hit One dance. That alone has garnered more than 1.8 billion streams. Yet, it was never really officially released on YouTube.
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Drake has more than seven billion views on YouTube. Beyonce, who has worked with African artists for the Lion King album released last year, has more than 12 billion YouTube views.
On the other hand, Justin Bieber became famous during his teenage years. As of now, the 26-year-old Canadian singer already has a massive number of 21.6 billion YouTube views.
K-pop stars have also gained a huge YouTube fanbase quickly. For instance, Blackpink, a Korean female group originally formed in 2016, already has more than nine billion views on YouTube.
What About Africa’s Female Musicians?
Surprisingly, things are different for African female musicians. Yemi Alade and Tiwa Savage, both female Afrobeats stars, have significantly fewer views than their male counterparts. Yemi Alade has 434 million views, while Tiwa Savage has 239 million views on YouTube.
This might be because it has always been more difficult for women to get their breakthrough in Africa. In the said country, males dominate the music industry. For this reason, females have to spend time concentrating on their image, fighting their corner, and less time churning out new songs, said DJ Edu.
He also noted that Africans noticed that clubs did not book female artists for big shows until very recently. And if you perform in front of big audiences, you will be able to generate a following.
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One artist who is ahead of Yemi Alade and Tiwa Savage is the phenomenally famous Sinach, a Nigerian gospel singer. She has a total of 472 million YouTube views, which is undoubtedly boosted due to her international tours. Her following at the Christ Embassy megachurch also played a role in her significant number of following. Sinach is a worship leader in the said church.
However, DJ Edu pointed out that he finds gospel singers to have an unfair advantage. This is because they just lyrically pic a few Bible verses, and their following is already there.
Date: March 25, 2021 / Categories: Influencer Marketing, YouTube, / Author: Joy P
