East Africa’s songstress and composer, Priscilla Zawedde(Azawi) Nigeria’s Omah Lay are among 4 African artists representing Africa to join the YouTubeBlack voices class of 2022.
Azawi just released her album Titled African Music that debuted as the number one album on Apple Music and quickly immersed over 3M views on YouTube in her short career.
Supported by the #YouTube Black Voices Fund, the #YouTubeBlack Voices Music Class of 2022 is a development programme designed to directly support and mentor Black artists, songwriters and producers worldwide. The addition of songwriters and producers to the 2022 class demonstrates the continuation and expansion of Youtube’s efforts to support Black artists on the platform.
With the aim of equipping up-and-coming Black artists, songwriters and producers with the resources to succeed on YouTube, the class will be grouped into two programme streams: one for artists and one for songwriters and producers.
Class participants will each receive dedicated partner support, seed funding to invest in the development of their channels, and opportunities to participate in training and networking programs focused on production, fan engagement and wellbeing.
Over the next 6 months, they will also get opportunities to develop their catalogues and collaborate with other global artists, songwriters, and producers who have also been selected to take part in the programme.
Commenting on the significance of the programme, YouTube’s Head of Music, Sub-Saharan, Addy Awofisayo says “African music is taking the entire world by storm and the #YouTubeBlackVoices Fund is an opportunity to both celebrate and nurture African artistry and help songwriters, producers and artists share their craft with global audiences.”
Azawi whose channel has over 3.8 million views, is best known for her hit song ‘Repeat it’ that attracted 2.3 million, Quinamo(1 million views), Slow dancing(800,000 views) and her latest release ‘My Year’ that has since attracted 700,000 views.
