From Weezer to Leo Moracchioli, everybody likes Africa.
It may seem strange, but "Africa", almost forty years after its release, is an example of music that survives its time and conquers listeners of new generations.
Somehow, this cheesy, emotional tune, inspires unironic adoration across the web. With over half a billion streams in YouTube and and closing to a billion (over 800 million by June 2020) streams on Spotify, the song has found a new life in the internet age!
But what explains this long lasting popularity if music was, at the time of its release, not a such a hit?
Part of the explanation comes from the intrinsic qualities of the song, bloger 12 Tone explained in his YouTube series “we're taking a look at one of the most famous songs on the internet, Africa, by Toto. It sounds simple, but Toto was full of brilliant session musicians, and they managed to bury a lot of really clever touches in it, including possibly the most interesting piece of harmony we've looked at yet”.
Since 2013, covers and parodies appear on YouTube and on a reditt forum. The song then started appearing on several shows like Family Guy, South Park, Jimmy Fallon and Stranger Things.
In 2017 the song won a fantastic hard rock style cover by Leo Moracchioli and in 2018 the Weezer version
With 32nd most explosive chorus, according to the British magazine NME, "Africa" will probably continue to win the hearts and minds of new generations.
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