Spotify has launched a Barca African Connect playlist.
Football and music have always had a symbiotic relationship, and for footballers, it acts as a getaway from all the noise and pressure that comes with training and live games. For Spotify, this symbiosis is best shown in the partnership with FC Barcelona, part of which birthed the Barca African Connect playlist, combining football from FC Barcelona and music subcultures from Africa.
The playlist is made up of top African tracks that help Alejandro Balde, Jules Konde and Lamine Yamal get game-day ready. These three footballers are not only some of FC Barcelona’s key first team players, but they are also of African descent. Alejandro Balde, who recently visited Guinea Bissau was born in Barcelona to Guinean and Dominican parents, Jules Kounde was born in Paris to a French mother and a Beninese father, and Yamal’s father is from Morocco and his mother is from Equatorial Guinea.
Barca African Connect is updated weekly, since its 14 September launch, and features different genres of music including Afrobeats, Amapiano, Afro-pop and more. In addition to the tracks that motivate the players, the playlist also has songs from Ch’cco, Teni, Odumodublvck and Pabi Cooper, who are all part of a campaign to further showcase the synergy that exists between FC Barcelona and music from the African continent.
It is safe to say that the only way is up for Africa, football, and music’s relationship.