Moroccan Music at AFRIMA 2025: The Morap Takeover is Official
This feature was informed by expert input from Ms. Adenrele Niyi, Chief Experience Officer (CXO) at AFRIMA, particularly on the voting framework and Academy procedures.
WATCH Iba One Beats Wizkid, Davido, Burna Boy, Olamide To Win Album Of The Year At AFRIMA 2021 | Iba One holds the Guinness World Record for the most wins at a single All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA) ceremony, having won five awards in 2021.
What is the AFRIMA Award? History, Mission, and Continental Impact
The All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA) stands as the continent’s most prestigious music celebration, an annual event that has become the definitive barometer of African musical excellence and cultural influence. Established in 2014 in collaboration with the African Union (AU), AFRIMA represents far more than just an awards ceremony, it is a powerful platform designed to “honor the best in African music, recognizing the creativity, cultural heritage, and impact of artists from all corners of the continent.” With its dazzling production values, pan-African participation, and growing global viewership, AFRIMA has cemented its position as Africa’s premier musical celebration.
AFRIMA’s mission was dualistic: to celebrate musical excellence and to act as an engine for the AU’s cultural and economic development agendas. The awards consist of 37 prizes divided into two main categories: region-based awards and genre-based continental awards. The regional awards ensure representation from all parts of Africa, with categories for Best Male and Female Artist in each of the five African regions (Central, Western, Eastern, Northern, and Southern Africa) and genre mastery, (from Hip Hop and Jazz to Traditional), the awards created a framework where an emerging star from Burundi could be measured against an icon from Nigeria on a fair, structured playing field.
The creation of AFRIMA addressed a critical gap in the African cultural landscape: the absence of a truly continental, professionally organized awards system that could rival the Grammys or MTV Awards in production quality and prestige. As Mike Dada, President and Executive Producer of AFRIMA, explained: “What is important for us is to acknowledge the collaboration we have embarked upon, with the support and input from all of us across the continent, whether from Morocco, Tanzania, Tunisia, or Namibia. We have come together to ensure we have a platform where we can all congregate to tell our stories through the medium of music.”
How Does AFRIMA Voting Work? A Transparent Guide to the Process
The true genius of this framework lies in its intricate, two-tiered voting system, a mechanism that balances populist appeal with expert validation. As clarified to us by Ms. Adenrele Niyi, AFRIMA’s Chief Experience Officer, the process is a meticulously engineered exercise in democratic and professional fairness, designed to balance popular appeal with expert validation.
For the 36 General Categories, the winner is decided by a 70% public vote and a 30% academy vote. This ensures that a song’s continental resonance is measured alongside its technical and artistic merit. The “African Fans’ Favorite” category is pure democracy: 100% public vote, a testament to an artist’s direct connection with the people.
Conversely, categories like “Album of the Year” and “Producer of the Year” are left entirely to the 100-member AFRIMA Academy, a college of music professionals, scholars, and critics, ensuring that craftsmanship is judged by peers. The “Legend Award” is chosen solely by the AFRIMA International Committee, preserving its status as a lifetime achievement honor.
This system, audited by an independent international firm, is built on the core principle acronym FACE IT: Fairness, Authenticity, Creativity, Excellence, Integrity, and Transparency. It is this credibility that has allowed AFRIMA to become the definitive barometer of African music. When an artist wins here, it carries the weight of both the people and the industry.
From Ahmed Soultan to ElGrandeToto: Morocco's Journey to AFRIMA
For years, the narrative of African popular music was dominantly narrated from its western and southern hubs: Lagos, Accra, and Johannesburg. North Africa, and Morocco in particular, was often perceived as a separate entity, its musical exports rarely penetrating the mainstream Afro-centric playlists. Morocco’s journey at AFRIMA charts its deliberate and triumphant integration into the African musical consciousness.
The initial breakthroughs were foundational. Artists like Ahmed Soultan, with his blend of traditional Moroccan influences and contemporary R&B, won Best Male Artist in Northern Africa in both 2014 and 2015, (the award’s inaugural years), and later securing the Best Album of the Year award in 2016. He proved that Moroccan artists could compete and excel, setting a template of cultural fusion that would become the nation’s signature.
The watershed moment of Moroccan hip-hop was ElGrandeToto’s win as Most Promising African Artist in 2021, beating out heavyweights like Ayra Starr, Blxckie, and Ckay. Here was a Casablanca rapper, rhyming in Darija, being recognized on a pan-African stage. Same year, rapstar Dizzy DROS won Best Male Artist in North Africa, and visionary artist Manal Benchlikha broke barriers winning the Best Female Artist in North Africa award. Their success blew the doors open. Suddenly, the continent was listening.
WATCH Ahmed Soultan Best Album Of The Year Award | Ahmed Soultan won the Best Album of the Year award at AFRIMA 2016, becoming the first—and as of September 2025, the only—North African artist to win the category. This record could change if ElGrandeToto wins this year with his nominated album, SALGOAT.
The Morap Doctrine: Resistance, Reclamation, and Viral Resonance
The real turning point, however, came with the meteoric rise of the Moroccan hip-hop genre known as Morap. As it’s defined, Morap is characterized by its fusion of traditional Moroccan instrumentation like the bendir, the qraqeb, the loutar with contemporary beats like trap, drill, and boom-bap. Its lyrical content, delivered primarily in Darija (Moroccan Arabic), is a vehicle for social commentary, resistance, and raw storytelling, often code-switching between Darija, French, Spanish and English to mirror the nation’s complex postcolonial identity.
Morap provided Morocco with its sonic weapon: a sound that was undeniably global in its appeal yet authentically local in its essence. And AFRIMA provided the arena where this weapon could be tested and triumphant.
By the 2025 nominations, Morocco was no longer an outsider; it was a dominant force. The record-breaking 10,717 entries submitted this year included a formidable Moroccan contingent. ElGrandeToto himself landed a staggering five nominations, including the prestigious Album of the Year for ‘SALGOAT’ and Artiste of the Year, placing him alongside African giants like Burna Boy and Davido.
But it was the depth that was truly telling: newcomers like Jaylann received three nominations, while forces like Stormy found new continental recognition. Morocco was being acknowledged not just for its stars, but for the strength and diversity of its entire musical ecosystem.
WATCH Norfafrica x Kekra x Dizzy DROS – STK STK | Directed by WLDRB, this short-movie is a nominee for Best African Music Video of the Year at AFRIMA 2025, “STK STK” by Dizzy DROS and Kekra is a defining manifesto of the Morap genre. The track weaponizes its sonic militancy and a high-concept video to stage a symbolic battle for cultural sovereignty, elevating Morap’s visual aesthetics.
Morap Music: The Genre Behind Morocco's AFRIMA Nominations
The nomination list for 2025 reads like a manifesto for the Morap movement itself, showcasing its stylistic range and cultural depth. Three nominations, in particular, serve as perfect case studies for how this genre functions as a tool of resistance and reclamation.
First, “STK STK” (Dec 6, 2024) directed by WLDRB and performed by Dizzy DROS, Kekra, and Norf, is nominated for the Best African Music Video of the Year. This track is perhaps the purest expression of Morap’s ethos, a masterclass in symbolic militancy and cultural resistance. The title is an onomatopoeic nod to percussion or gunfire, a sonic war cry. The video reimagines the ‘Guerrab’ (a traditional water porter) as a warrior-guardian of heritage, clad in armor fusing Amazigh motifs with hip-hop fashion. Set in a hyper-real Moroccan souk, it stages a symbolic battle over cultural sovereignty. Linguistically, it weaponizes code-switching, rapping in Darija, French, and English, as Kekra declares, “Weld l’kharij? w 3ati l’mhom darija” (Child of the diaspora? well, give them Darija). It is a defiant act of taking a symbol of working-class dignity and repositioning it as a spear against cultural erasure.
Second, “Kafini” (Jul 30, 2025) by ElGrandeToto and Algerian-French rapper Tif, nominated for Best African Act in Diaspora (Male). This track exemplifies the strategic cross-border collaboration that has accelerated Morocco’s integration. it’s an act of cultural diplomacy, building bridges between North Africa and its diaspora through a shared sonic language that blends chaâbi and rai influences with modern rap, a success evidenced by its top 10 chart placements in France, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, and Canada.
Third, “Mok Ya Mok” (Feb 6, 2025) by Benny Adams and Khadija El Warzazia, nominated for Best African Collaboration. It is a fantastic blend of global hip-hop and Moroccan local sounds. Khadija El Warzazia is a vocalist and leader of Bnat el Houariyat, an all-women group preserving ancestral Houara and Chaabi songs; while Adams is a Montreal-based Moroccan rapper, both created a viral hit that climbed charts in Morocco and France, amassing over 150 million views on TikTok and Instagram Reels. It proves that the most potent global sound might be the one that is most authentically local.
WATCH Benny Adam & Khadija El Warzazia – Mok ya Mok |Nominated for Best African Collaboration at AFRIMA 2025, Benny Adam and Khadija El Warzazia’s “Mok ya Mok” became a summer banger by blending global hip-hop with authentic Moroccan sounds. The track’s massive success proves that Morap is the future of hip-hop.
How AFRIMA’s System Catalyzed a Movement
The 2025 edition of AFRIMA, themed “Unstoppable Africa,” is set to be a coronation. Hosted in Lagos, the nerve center of the continent’s music industry, Beyond a mere ceremony, this event will be a grand wedding of Africa’s finest musical talents. The expected dominance of Moroccan artists, will be a powerful testament to a continent that is increasingly listening to itself in all its diverse glory.
The implications are profound. Morocco’s success challenges outdated cultural geographies that have long divided North Africa from the sub-Saharan. It demonstrates that the future of African music lies not in isolation but in connection, and in a shared platform like AFRIMA that makes such connections possible and celebrated.
In the rise of Morap, we hear the sound of that freedom, to be unapologetically Moroccan, and in doing so, to become more authentically and powerfully African than ever before. The voting portal is open. The world is watching. And from Dakar to Dar es Salaam, from Casablanca to Cape Town, the rhythm of an unstoppable continent is beating as one.
The Full List of Moroccan Nominees for AFRIMA 2025
For the 2025 All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA), Moroccan artists have garnered significant recognition across multiple categories:
- ElGrandeToto — 5 nominations:
- Album of the Year — SALGOAT
- Song of the Year — Diplomatico
- Artiste of the Year
- Best African Act in Diaspora (Male) — Kafini (feat. TIF)
- Best Male Artiste in Northern Africa
- Jaylann — 3 nominations:
- Best Female Artiste in Northern Africa
- Best Artiste, Duo or Group in African Contemporary
- Best African Dance/Choreography — Ha Wlidi
- WLDRB — 1 nomination:
- Best African Music Video of the Year — STK STK (feat. Dizzy DROS, Kekra, and Norf)
- Lbenj — 1 nomination:
- Best Male Artiste in Northern Africa — Rwini
- Stormy — 1 nomination:
- Best Male Artiste in Northern Africa — Pirate
- Inez — 1 nomination:
- Best Female Artiste in Northern Africa — Ah Min Hala
- Manal — 2 nominations:
- Best Female Artiste in Northern Africa
- Best African Artiste, Duo or Group in African RNB & Soul — Cabaret
- Meryem Aboulouafa — 1 nomination:
- Best Female Artiste in Northern Africa — Horses
- Zina Daoudia — 1 nomination:
- Best Female Artiste in Northern Africa — Sur Scène
- Benny Adam & Khadija El Warzazia — 1 nomination:
- Best African Collaboration — Mok Ya Mok
- Rym — 1 nomination:
- Most Promising Artiste of the Year
- Saad Lmjarred — 1 nomination:
- Best African Artiste, Duo or Group in African Pop — Riskin
