On Thursday, AMAKA hosted a night with Yemi Alade at East London’s Studio Spaces, which saw the Afrobeats superstar sing a mixture of new releases and classic hits to an intimate crowd of around 200 people.

Alade also sat down with AMAKA Editor-in-Chief, Ivie Ani, for in-depth discussion on the importance of African women’s voices in the music industry, both on stage and behind the scene.

DJ Dibs and Nicky Summers were the night’s supporting DJs. Monikah Lee hosted. 

The event was organised in partnership with CANEX — Creative Africa Nexus — an initiative developed by African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) to support Africa’s rapidly growing creative market.

AMAKA has worked with CANEX previously during the past two Portugal Fashion Weeks in Porto.

The evening was also sponsored by whisky company Southern Comfort.

Programme coordinator for CANEX’s 2021 summit, Lara Utian-Preston, explains the scheme in more depth, saying: “There are different roles for government, educators, donor organisations,banks and financial institutions and even consumers of creative work. But if there is one thing that crosses these sectors it would be collaboration and cooperation.”

“You cannot have creative sectors working in isolation and the creative sector needs to be integrated into the worlds of finance, government and policy, and education”, she continued.

AMAKA was able to record the soundcheck for the show, which will be released later in the year to promote the release of Yemi Alade’s latest single “My Man”.