South Africans streamed more than 8.5 billion minutes of R&B on Spotify in 2025

The figures show that younger audiences account for the largest share of R&B listeners. Users aged 18 to 24 made up 40.9% of the genre’s audience on Spotify in South Africa, while those aged 25 to 29 accounted for 18.7%.

South African singer Tyla was the country’s most-streamed local R&B artist on Spotify during the year. She was followed by Sondae, Lloyiso, Elaine and Jordan G Welch.

Across Africa, Tyla also topped Spotify’s list of the continent’s most-streamed R&B artists in 2025. She was joined by Tems, Ayra Starr, Omah Lay and Fireboy DML. Among the most-streamed R&B songs across the continent were Venus, Baby (Is It A Crime), Arike, Lost and Gimme Dat.

The streaming data coincides with continued demand for live R&B performances in South Africa. Earlier this year, Johannesburg hosted the latest edition of Once Upon A Time In Joburg, an R&B and neo-soul event headlined by American singer SiR.

Reflecting on the performance, SiR praised the response from South African audiences.

“The audience is always wonderful when I'm out here. The people are always showing love and I definitely had a great time. I think this was one of my best shows,” he said.

The singer also highlighted South African artist Manana as one of his musical discoveries during his visit.

“Having experienced him, man, I’m a fan already,” SiR said. “To find out that my mother was already a fan, I was in tears.”

Spotify said its curated playlists continue to support R&B discovery, with Ginja ranking among Africa's most-streamed playlists in the genre, while Cocoa Butter and Afro R&B remain among the platform’s editorial playlist selections.

Within South Africa, R&B streaming was highest in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Pretoria, Durban and Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth). Across the continent, the largest R&B streaming markets were Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Ghana and Zambia.

The latest figures suggest that R&B continues to attract significant audiences in South Africa, driven by both local and international artists, as well as sustained interest from younger listeners.