The 10 Best Afrobeats Albums of 2022

From the elegance of SDC’s Palm Wine Music Vol 3 to Sha Sha’s soul-subduing vocals over Amapiano synths on I’m Alive to Burna Boy’s Outsiders-inspired “Love, Damini”, these are the 10 best Afrobeats albums of 2022. Feel the vibrations, live the melodies; this is the very best of Afrobeats.

by Onyeka January 13, 2023, 9:56 am 1.6k Views

2022 was the year we completely put Covid behind us, with concerts, tours, and clubs returning to sellout crowds. The year gave us plenty new music to tango, fulfilling the desires of incurable partygoers to grace the dancefloor with the same zest and nonchalance they did prior to the pandemic. Extraordinarily, it was also the year of the elites; if Davido had dropped his fourth studio album, 2022 would have marked the first time arguably three of Afrobeats’ most influential musicians—Davido, Burna Boy, and Wizkid—released an album in the same calendar year. Not forgetting that Don Jazzy, Simi, and Adekunle Gold were among that long list of glit-edged singers whose new albums made 2022 illustrious.

The year was littered with highly anticipated projects that proved to be worth the wait and a couple of sonic experiments that paid off including Show Dem Camp completing the Palm Wine Music trilogy, Sha Sha releasing her first project since 2019, Asake seemingly getting us hooked on one baseline on “Mr Money With The Vibe”, Wizkid dazzling with Amapiano, CKay molding his legacy on “Sad Romance”, Omah Lay knitting loverboy and sadboy shifts on “Boy Alone”, and Rema removing the thorns from the roses on his debut album.

We could go on and on about these projects but unhappily, there’s only room for 10. These are the 10 best Afrobeats albums of 2022.

(All releases featured here are independently selected by our writers).