Songs from African Artists You Must Hear This Week

Every week, OkayAfrica highlights the top African music releases — including the latest Afrobeats and amapiano hits — through our best music column, African Music You Need to Hear This Week.

Read ahead for our round-up of the best new African music tracks and music videos that came across our desks this week.

Tyla — "Is It Love"

Tyla's gearing up for her long-teased album, A*Pop, and it's looking like she'll change the game once again. Much-lauded, much-admired, but also much-criticized, the international pop superstar refuses to back down, and seems to have realized the power in firing from her waist and saying very little else. The music speaks for itself: "Is it love if you don't cry?" she asks, over a beat that's a bridge between R&B and trap sensibilities.

Sjava, Emtee, Saudi and Ruff — The Trap Temptations [LP]

Sjava, Emtee, Saudi and Ruff released their collaborative album earlier this week. It's a brooding collection of love songs premised on the idea of supergroups of old — The O'Jays, The Manhattans, The Temptations — with a South African twist that draws from all four artists' lives. The artists have been working together on projects for over a decade, and each has carved his own lane in South African music.

Solana, Killertunez — "Okunkun"

Solana's making some of the best music of her career right now, and "Okunkun" is squarely in that streak. The power anthem takes the best parts of the '80s — the sheen, the attitude, the expansiveness of sounds — and gives them a 2026 facelift, courtesy of Killertunez, whose sound bed creates the perfect mood for Solana to go wild. And she does, with a song so catchy and life-giving that replaying it isn't overkill.

Marcus Harvey — "Mapula"

Marcus Harvey is the golden child of South African R&B. His discography speaks for itself; he's been a top-tier artist since his arrival in 2020. "Mapula" is the first single from his forthcoming album, Son Of Elvis, due August 28. It finds the artist promising the world to his lover, as Jordan Klem's production wraps the message up and delivers it at high fidelity, with deep basslines and keys that tingle the senses.

Hadaya Eliana — "Wacha Wacha"

Nairobi's Hadaya Eliana has the markings of a star. The singer and songwriter's latest release, "Wacha Wacha," takes elements of early 2000s R&B and integrates them into the East African state of mind, locating a looming greatness and placing it in the palm of her hand. Her voice cuts above the nostalgia, and we're left with warm, fuzzy feelings that are very much a part of the present.

Umzulu Phaqa — "Unlimited Budget"

Umzulu Phaqa wears her heart on her sleeve and speaks her truth at all costs. She made a splash when she announced she'd be quitting music some months back, but has seemingly come back filled with a force greater than herself. Her songs are gateways to the dream world, manifestations for a better life. "Unlimited Budget" is essentially her saying that she won't give up; that she'll keep kicking down doors in search of something better for herself and her loved ones.

Nyota Parker, Jay Jody — Confused Admiration [LP]

Nyota Parker has been putting in time developing her pen game, her confidence, and her delivery. She's a new-school artist with an old soul, a scholar of hip-hop versed in its fundamentals. So it only makes sense that she'd collaborate with Jay Jody, one of rap's gifted sons, who is an equally great student of the game, as well as an elder to many. Their collaborative project, Confused Admiration, is common ground for different generations to develop a single language, to communicate in present tense so that the future doesn't get caught slipping.

Moliy — "Jetski (FRIKI)" (feat. Yailin La Más Viral & Theodora)

Moliy's deep in her reggaeton bag on "Jetski (FRIKI)." "I can make your mind want me," she declares at the beginning, before the song devolves into a dizzying minefield of massive proportions. This one's designed for the dancefloor, for the ones who know no weekends. She doesn't do it alone, though, and enlists Dominican Republic's Yailin La Más Viral, who's fresh from a three-day stint in jail for gun possession, as well as French Congolese singer-songwriter Theodora, and together, they  maximize this high-impact music with their combined aura.