Burna Boy breaks African Spotify record with 47 million monthly listeners, Dai Dai leads the surge

• Burna Boy has set a new African record on Spotify after reaching 47.4 million monthly listeners, the highest ever by an artist from the continent.

• The surge has been driven by his World Cup anthem "Dai Dai" with Shakira, which recently topped Spotify's Global Top Songs chart.

• The new milestone puts Burna Boy on course to become the first African artist to reach 50 million monthly listeners on the streaming platform.

Burna Boy has set a new all-time record for monthly listeners by an African artist on Spotify, reaching 47.4 million, a figure no African act has ever hit on the platform.

The surge is being driven almost entirely by Dai Dai, his World Cup collaboration with Colombian superstar Shakira, which peaked at number one on the Spotify Global Top Songs chart on June 30. 

That made Burna Boy the first African artist to top the chart since Wizkid appeared on it through his collaboration with Drake on One Dance back in 2016.

The record he now holds was previously set by South African singer Tyla, who reached 46.58 million monthly listeners in December 2025, briefly overtaking Burna Boy to become the most-listened-to African act on the platform. 

That run lasted until Dai Dai's global momentum pushed him past her total and then some.

Dai Dai, released May 15 as the official anthem of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, has accumulated over 123 million streams on Spotify alone since its release. 

Written in five languages: English, Spanish, Italian, French and Japanese, the track blends Shakira's pop instincts with Burna Boy's Afrobeats influence, and was co-written alongside Ed Sheeran and Jon Bellion, among others. Shakira and Burna Boy performed it live at the World Cup opening ceremony on June 11.

The song has since been added to Shakira's Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour setlist during its North American leg, and its music video, which opens with cameos from Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappé and Erling Haaland, has added further fuel to its reach.

With 47.4 million monthly listeners and climbing, Burna Boy is now positioned to become the first African artist ever to cross 50 million monthly listeners on Spotify, a threshold no act from the continent has come close to before.

The milestone adds to what has already been a record-breaking run for the singer. In 2025, he posted 1.986 billion streams on Spotify across the year, the highest single-year total ever recorded by an African artist on the platform, ahead of Wizkid's 1.81 billion and Tyla's 1.67 billion.

He is also the first African artist to have two studio albums individually surpass one billion streams on Spotify.

The World Cup runs through July 19, with the final scheduled at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, meaning Dai Dai's peak streaming window is still ahead, and Burna Boy's listener count has room to climb further before the tournament ends.

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