Iyanya and The Lion King

Today I have music for you by an artist out of Nigeria. I haven't posted any foreign songs in a long while and I definitely have not posted any music from Africa. Iyanya is one of Nigeria's most popular artists and I can see why! I love everything about this song, from the traditional African beat, to the inclusion of modern rhythm, to the way Iyanya's voice sounds. This song makes you feel so good just by listening to it. This song has such an infectious energy to it and when you hear this you feel the irresistible need to get up and dance. Iyanya has great versatility to his music. Some songs can be very sensual and slow, others very R&B oriented, or like this one. Iyanya makes fantastic use of the afrobeat style of music. I feel like it is very easy to hear the afrobeat in this song considering how the entire song is done in afrobeat. This song uses so many instruments and layered harmonies to add this great dynamism and drive to the song. This song never loses momentum and energy which is simply the best! From the beginning we are introduced to the repeated drum beat which then has different instruments added on like the synth and more percussion. The melody of this song is really nice and bright. It has a change from major second to a minor, and usually that can sound rather dark. But with this song, it makes the song sound like it has more depth. The melody was so well crafted with this song. It is something we can dance to and sing along to and just feel incredible when listening. Iyanya has an incredible voice and this song showcases his incredible vocals. I think he has a really smooth and soothing voice. He reminds me a little bit of Akon. You can hear his accent when he sings, but to me, that adds so much charm to the song. It gives the song authenticity and excitement. We get to hear Iyanya's range all over the place which also really great because he has an excellent range. We get to hear his lower notes in the layered harmony and his higher notes towards the last chorus. Iyanya has created a song that is so incredibly fun and lovable. Today's instrumental song comes from the movie The Lion King. Now I know half of you are going to want to pull the racist card on me, but I am telling you right now that I am in now way trying to be racist. This song has all the elements of afrobeat along with modern and Western techniques that it seemed like an apt companion for the first song. And let us be honest, we all know that I am right on this one in choosing a song that comes from a movie score that is highly influenced by afrobeat. Ask Hans Zimmer and he will tell you that a large part of this score is getting the right afrobeat. But both of these songs go really well together in my opinion and hopefully you will see where I am coming from. Much of the main chorus includes the afrobeat sound which is awesome. I hope you enjoy the music and please feel free to comment!