Festival Recap: Afro Nation Detroit Day 1

Words by Elul Adoga and Beth Teka

This year Afro Nation was brought back to Detroit for the second year. The festival is about bringing together top African artists from Afrobeats, Ampiano, Hip Hop, and R&B all being highlighted in two days. The festival started back in 2019 as a way of capturing the beauty of the continent through music. It has since then grown to become one of the largest Afrobeats festivals in the world with over 22,000 people in attendance. This year, they had artists like Rema, Ayra Starr, King Promise, and Asake. 

Ayra Starrr is an artist that if you didn't know her before AfroNation, you should now. She was one of the most outstanding performances of the night. The Rush singer had started her performance with the hit song Woman commando which features R&B artist Coco Jones & Annita. Along with other hit songs from her latest album The Year I Turned 21 such as Commas and Last Heartbreak Song. Her dancers were nothing short of amazing engaging the crowd utlizing all elements of the stage. As someone who has been a fan of Ayra Starr for a couple of years, her performance was everything as amazing as I knew it was gonna be.

We were able to end day one of the festival with the Grammy award-winning Rema on the LIT stage. The singer, commonly known for his hit song “Calm Down” ended a fun “Lit” day. Rema started his set with a song from his new album HEIS. He continued his set with his other hit songs- Holiday, Calm Down, and even his newest remix of Favorite Girl. Rema finished his set with his newest hit OZEBA which made the crowd go even crazier. Definitely the perfect ending to the first day of the Festival.