African megastar Diamond Platinumz’s record-breaking achievements in music

Renowned Tanzania artiste Diamond Platinumz crossed another milestone in his distinguished music career after the success of the hit song ‘Waah’ that featured Congolese legend Koffi Olomide.

Released in November 2020, the hit song exceeded a million views within 8 hours of release, breaking the Africa YouTube records. This rare yet highly iconic collaboration between the two artists broke the previous record set by Nigerian artiste Davido who stole the internet with his song ‘Fem’ garnering a million views within 9 hours of release.

The hit song ‘Wah’ was also the first African music video to garner 2 million views within 24 hours. To date, the video has exceeded over 50 million views. 

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A while back, Diamond had set another African record by being the first artiste within sub-Saharan Africa to exceed over a billion views on YouTube. He overtook big names such as Tiwa Savage, Burna Boy, Sauti Sol, Yemi Alade, Pantoranking, Wizkid, and others. 

The video was directed by a production company Zoom Extra, co-owned by Diamond and Kenny. When producing the video, the Tanzanian artiste flew the Kinshasa-based musician to Dar for the feature.

After Kofie’s arrival, the duo had the song written in a few days after which a video was immediately shot. Diamond continuously updated his fans on his social media handles, mainly Facebook and Instagram. 

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The audio version of the song was first released on YouTube garnering over a  million views on the first day. This was then followed by the video version which drove in traffic of over a million in eight hours.

The video showcased several stylistic dancing moves by both artists, who displayed an impressive mix of African dancing styles. 

The Tanzania music star has dominated the popular bongo flavor artist has smashed hit after hit offering romantic melodies accompanied by an urban beat and influenced by traditional taarab sounds drawn from the East Africa coast. 43% of Tanzania’s 55 million people have direct access to the internet through smartphones, creating a solid Swahili-speaking base market ready to rock to his love songs. Other popular Tanzanian musicians he has worked with are such as Harmonize. 

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At present, he has an impressive 11.8 million followers on Instagram and 4.93 million YouTube subscribers. Over the past decade, YouTube has given African musicians direct access to consumers without having to rely on TV stations. They can then earn income from adverts showcased to the viewers. 

As one of Africa’s most successful music stars, Diamond is yet to eclipse some North African music stars who enjoy a huge following across the Middle East region. According to a BBC News article shared in June 2020, Malian-born singer Aya Nakamura, exceeded the bongo star with an impressive 1.7 billion views on YouTube. The 25-year-old who relocated to France is well known for her 2018 hit Djadja. The Senegalese-American rapper has an impressive 3.5 billion views on YouTube.