No African artists featured in Deezer’s 2025 global highlights

The platform presented its most-streamed artists, songs and albums of the year, alongside listening trends and user engagement data. The top 10 list of most-streamed artists worldwide was dominated by Western and Latin acts, led by Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish. Other names in the top 10 included The Weeknd, Bad Bunny, Linkin Park, Sabrina Carpenter, Coldplay, Imagine Dragons and Ed Sheeran. No African musician appeared in the list.

The most-streamed songs globally followed a similar pattern, with titles such as ‘APT’ by Rosé and Bruno Mars, ‘Die With A Smile’ by Lady Gaga and ‘Beautiful Things’ by Benson Boone dominating user streams. The most-shared songs list and the most-streamed albums of the year were also led by non-African acts, including Bad Bunny, The Weeknd, Lady Gaga, Morgan Wallen, Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift.

“In 2025 we’ve seen many artists experimenting and crossing boundaries between genres in new ways,” Deezer director of music & culture, Azzedine Fall said. He highlighted artists including Rosalía, Bad Bunny, Oklou and Tyler, the Creator, noting that, “Globally, women dominated the charts on Deezer, with Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish in the top three for 2025.”

The absence of African representation extended to other sections of the report, including the top genres, where hip hop, pop, rock, electronic and Latin American music were listed as the most popular globally, and to Deezer’s Music Quiz feature, in which themes such as Disney, Movies & TV and Love Classics were ranked highest.

The report also addressed the impact of Artificial Intelligence on music consumption. Fall said: “It’s almost impossible to talk about music in 2025 without mentioning AI.” He added that Deezer tags albums with fully AI-generated music and removes such tracks from its recommendation algorithm and editorial playlists, emphasising that “human creativity remains essential”.

Alongside the global data, Deezer launched its interactive My Deezer Year in-app experience, which presents users with a personalised recap of their listening habits in the format of a “romantic comedy” narrative. The feature allows users to view, share and compare the artists, songs and genres that defined their individual listening year.

While the platform highlighted increased user engagement – with listeners averaging 122.8 hours of music and discovering hundreds of new tracks and artists – the lack of African artists in the global year-end lists stands out at a time when genres such as amapiano, Afro-pop and Afrobeats continue to gain international attention across other platforms and markets.

No explanation for the absence of African representation in Deezer’s 2025 global highlights was provided in the report.

Read the full report here.