Asake’s headline performance at Red Bull Symphonic (USA) has been widely described as groundbreaking, and accurately so. In November 2025, the Nigerian superstar became the first African artist to headline the U.S. iteration of the Red Bull Symphonic series, a brand-led platform that reimagines popular music through full orchestral arrangements.
But orchestras are not new terrain for African music. Long before Afrobeats entered branded symphonic spaces, African artists across jazz, classical, folk, and pop had already been engaging orchestral institutions on their own terms. Asake’s moment is historic, not because it is unprecedented, but because it arrives at a different cultural scale.
Here are six African artists whose orchestral collaborations predate Asake’s Red Bull Symphonic milestone.
Angélique Kidjo (Benin)
Few African artists have consistently engaged with orchestral music as much as Angélique Kidjo. Her long-running African Symphony project pairs African repertoire with full symphony orchestras, commissioned and performed across Europe and the United States.
Beyond performance, Kidjo’s collaborations — including Ifé: Three Yorùbá Songs with Philip Glass- position African music not as a guest genre, but as compositional material worthy of classical reinterpretation.
Abdullah Ibrahim (South Africa)
South African jazz composer Abdullah Ibrahim has worked with orchestral forces since the 1990s, including performances with the Munich Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and symphonic presentations tied to South Africa’s post-apartheid cultural moment.
His work demonstrates that African music’s orchestral history is not limited to pop translation, but extends into jazz composition and national symbolism.
Toumani Diabaté (Mali)
The late Toumani Diabaté, a master of the kora, performed with the London Symphony Orchestra, placing a traditional West African instrument in dialogue with one of Europe’s most prestigious orchestral institutions. The collaboration reinforced a crucial point: African classical traditions do not require modernization to be symphonic; they already are.
Sona Jobarteh (The Gambia)
Kora virtuoso and composer Sona Jobarteh has performed with orchestras including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Britten Sinfonia. Her work bridges African oral tradition and Western classical form, often challenging the assumption that African instruments belong only in folk or “world music” contexts.
Tunde Jegede (Nigeria / UK)
Through his African Classical Music Ensemble, Tunde Jegede has collaborated with institutions such as the London Sinfonietta and BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. His work reframes African music as a classical system in its own right, not a genre seeking validation, but a philosophy demanding recognition.
Africa United Youth Orchestra
The Africa United Youth Orchestra, comprising young musicians from across the continent, made headlines with performances at Carnegie Hall. While not a pop act, the orchestra represents a critical reality: Africans are not only collaborating with orchestras, they are building and sustaining them.
While Asake’s Red Bull Symphonic headline in the U.S. is a milestone for contemporary Afrobeats artists, it fits within a longer history of African creators engaging symphonic and orchestral worlds. From Kidjo’s genre-bending symphonies to Ibrahim’s orchestral jazz collaborations and AUYO’s classical milestones, African music has been interfacing with orchestras for decades, each in its own idiom and historical context.
Watch Asake’s Red Bull Symphonic Performance :
