Ayra Starr and Tinariwen added to CANEX Concert 2024 line-up

They join Scorpion Kings (South Africa), Qing Madi (Nigeria), and Sofiya Nzau (Kenya). The CANEX Concert falls under the CANEX WKND, which will be held from 16 to 19 October. The concert is only open to registered CANEX WKND delegates.

Born in Benin, Ayra Starr has established herself as one of the strongest and most distinctive voices on the alternative side of Afrobeats with her 2021 single ‘Away’. She became the youngest African female artist to surpass 100 million views on a single video on YouTube, and also the first to do so within five months.

For their part, Tinariwen is a collective of Tuareg music from the Sahara region of southern Algeria and northern Mali called Azawad. The group will make an exciting return to the Algerian stage after a years-long hiatus. Tinariwen is massively popular in Algeria as well as globally and is considered a pioneer of desert blues; the group’s guitar-driven style combines traditional Tuareg and African music with Western rock.

In addition to the music concert, the event will also feature the CANEX Music Factory, which will be hosted by South African producer and DJ Oskido. The music factory will see hundreds of songwriters and beatmakers converge at live recording studios within the CANEX exhibition.

Meanwhile, the CANEX WKND will be held under the theme One People, United in Culture, Creating for the World, with an emphasis on connecting Global Africa and deploying strategies to elevate African creatives on the global stage. Featuring key creative industry stakeholders from across the continent and diaspora, the event will engage creatives, industry experts, government agencies, and investors to innovate solutions to the challenges facing Africa’s cultural and creative industries.

Attendance at CANEX WKND is free, with registration open here.