African Voices airs on CNN International Saturday 10th January 2026 at 08:30 WAT
In the latest episode of African Voices, CNN’s Larry Madowo speaks to the Nigerian singer, songwriter, and producer behind one of the biggest Afrobeat songs of all time, Ckay.
Madowo joins Ckay in his home studio, where some of his hits were made. He talks to Madowo about Love Nwantiti, his biggest hit with over a billion streams on Spotify, “I would say it’s definitely made its mark in the history books of Afrobeats, definitely, and I’m really proud to, you know, be a part of this whole culture.”
Ckay says that the inspiration behind the story of the song was love. “I was in between relationships at the time I wrote that song. I was making a beat, and I freestyled on the beats. I was just vibing my feelings straight from the heart. Like most times, I don’t always take a pen and write songs. Sometimes I like to just pour it straight from the heart.”
With other popular releases such as Emiliana and Felony, Ckay speaks to his growth as an artist, “As a person, I’ve grown in love with each time I make a song. If you listen to the lyrics and what I’m saying, you can tell that I’ve grown in love. I’m a lot more mature now and my music has grown with it as well.”
Ckay broke out by going viral on TikTok and reflects on the phenomenon of social media trends, “There was a time when in the early stages of this people would laugh that I was making TikToks for songs. People didn’t think it was cool to make TikToks. Fast forward now because people have seen the impact, everybody is making TikToks.”
Ckay is carving his own path in the world of Afrobeats. His music comes under the subgenre of ‘Emo Afrobeats’. He tells Madowo how this sound came about, “Being a cancer, cancers are known to be emotional people. We’re known to be very like in touch with our feelings. As a creative, my essence, which is my feelings, just naturally comes through my music even without me really trying. Afrobeats being my cultural heritage, I just felt like for me to come into this space, it was very important that I brought a different perspective to the sound.”
Despite using the term ‘Afrobeats’, Ckay addresses the overgeneralisation of the term, “Africa has over 50 countries, more than 50 cultures. Nigeria alone has over 36 ethnic groups with different languages, food, music, rhythm. With the music they also have their own instruments also not all of them play guitar and piano, there’s African instruments too. Coming to a whole continent and just calling everything Afrobeats, it’s not the most apt, but it’s a start, right? I think for the Western world, it’s a start to help them understand African music.”
Ckay ends the show by reflecting on what he wants his legacy to be, “When all this is said and done, I want my legacy to be that I innovated the sound, I advanced the culture. And I made the world a better place than I met it.”
African Voices airs on CNN International at the following times:
Saturday 10th January 2026 at 08:30 WAT and 12:00 WAT
Sunday 11th January 2026 at 04:30 WAT and 19:00 WAT
Monday 12th January 2026 at 04:00 WAT and 18:45 WAT
Tuesday 13th January 2026 at 18:45 WAT
Saturday 17th January 2026 at 08:30 WAT and 12:00 WAT
Sunday 18th January 2026 at 04:30 WAT 19:00 WAT
Monday 19th January 2026 04:00 WAT
