‘The last Women Standing!’ Coke Studio Africa to end with an all-female show

The 2019 edition of Coke Studio Africa has featured Africa’s greatest talents and created career breaks for many of this continent’s new acts, but what it has been most notable for is a strong commitment to empowering women involved in all aspects of the music and entertainment scene.

It celebrated women by giving them a platform to showcase their talents.
This was done on each episode culminating in a historical season finale that featured an all-female cast, in front of the cameras and behind the scenes – recording, styling, choreographing and instruments.

Uganda’s Sheebah Karungi and Mozambique Lourena Nhate had the opportunity to remix their songs with Viola Karuri, a female producer, while 11 female musicians joined in for the power packed track “African Woman” (Yelele Mama).

This amazing song represents a variety of ‘sista’-soundscapes from Zouk, Bongo Flava and Kizomba, to afrobeat, dancehall and hip hop.

It featured Mozambique’s Shellsy Baronet, Tanzania’s Nandy and Keisha alongside Mimi Mars, Kenya’s Nazizi, Namibia’s Lioness and Boity from South Africa as well as big break vocalists Nadia Mukami and Tamy Moyo of Zimbabwe. The track was produced by Viola Karuri with female studio engineer Muna.

Kenyan percussionist Kasiva has been a constant throughout the show’s recording sessions and live performances. She sees Coke Studio Africa as “A really important project for female artists, it is a huge brand with a massive viewership, so this just gives women a stage to be seen and a stage to be known and to express themselves musically.

This season has been really special because we have had more women band members than ever. This is one of the biggest stages for people to see African females killing it and think, ‘Hey women can do this, this is a decent job, it’s a serious career option and it’s ok for women to be musicians.’

This season finale of Coke Studio Africa has shown how a dedication to empowering females across the continent’s music industry is not a hard task at all, and doing so can create not only wonderful music but also an important shift in the scene and society as a whole.