While we are still fawning over the appearance of five Nigerian music giants on Beyonce’s new album, ‘The Lion King: The Gift’, it is important to acknowledge other African artistes who are featured on the 27 track-long project. Let’s quickly run you through the four artistes from three other African countries on the album:
1. Beyonce featured Shatta Wale from Ghana on a song with Major Lazer titled ‘Already’ and all three of them killing the tunes. Shatta Wale makes a solid claim as being a worthy choice to represent Ghana because he is great on the song.
2. South Africa is represented on the project by Busiswa and Moonchild Sanelly, both on the same song that Beyonce was also a part of. Both female singers were simply amazing on the song ‘My Power’. Busiswa is actually a respected songwriter and poet, while Moonchild Sanelly has created her own genre of music called the ‘Future ghetto punk’. Both offered a different vibe to the album and helped to give us a memorable listen.
Beyonce also had singer, songwriter and producer Salatiel representing Cameroon on the song ‘Water’ along with the legendary producer and singer, Pharrell Williams. So, with the collaborations, Beyonce really tried to find a way to give almost every song on the album the African feel.
On another song, ‘Otherside’, she had Bankulli and her back up singers sing the chorus in Yoruba.
On the ‘The Lion King: The Gift’ album, there are actually 14 songs and 13 interludes from the adaptation of the legendary movie ‘Lion King’ which is now out in the cinemas here in Nigeria.
Let us know what you think about this new album by Beyonce which she has described as “a gift to Africa” in the comment section below.