Beatport, a go-to digital music platform for Dance and EDM DJs and music lovers, has added Amapiano as a new genre to its marketplace. Hitherto, ‘Ameno Amapiano Remix’: Watch”>Amapiano was categorized under Afro House, Deep House and Dance/Electro Pop banners, which of course, hindered a stand-alone identity for this fast-growing sensation and its entities. With the help of this new classification, Beatport will be able to promote Amapiano through banners, playlists, and more definitive channels that other established genres have benefitted from on the platform.

Amapiano, a genre born in the townships of Gauteng—South Africa, around 2012, has been on the rise globally owing to the way of its superstars like Sha Sha, who won the BET Awards’ Best New International Act in 2020, Major League DJs who have repeatedly toured globally, and veterans like Samthing Soweto, DJ Maphorisa, and Kabza De Small. Recently, Nigerian superstars have jumped on the bandwagon, merging Amapiano elements with the popular Nigerian Afrobeats sound. This blend has birthed stars like Goya Menor, Nektunez, Asake, and Zinoleesky. It’s quite astounding how the genre has evolved. Many argue that the origin of the sound is cemented in Kwaito—a House music variant that emerged from Soweto in the 1990s.