Afrobeat International streams a mix of classic and contemporary afrobeat live from Côte d'Ivoire, billing itself as the best radio of Africa. It is free to listen right now, anywhere in the world, no account required.
Broadcasting From a City Built on Music
Afrobeat International streams out of Abidjan, a city that served as one of West Africa's major musical hubs through the 1970s and 1980s before political crises temporarily knocked it off that perch, according to a history of Ivorian music from Afropop Worldwide. Abidjan's music scene rebuilt itself in the decades since, and the station's afrobeat format sits inside a city whose sound has always traveled well beyond its own borders.
The Street That Built a Genre
That rebuilding produced coupé-décalé, a percussive style built on African samples, Congolese beats and deep bass that the late Stephane Doukouré, known as Douk Saga, pioneered after Ivory Coast's post-2002 political crisis. DJs working Rue Princesse, the Abidjan street where the genre first took hold, later became stars themselves, among them DJ Arafat, who turned coupé-décalé from a local party sound into one of the continent's biggest musical exports.
A Campus Sound That Came First
Coupé-décalé followed an earlier Ivorian movement called zouglou, which grew out of Abidjan's university campuses during the economic crisis of the early 1990s as students set frustrations over unemployment and cost of living to rhythm and humor. Artists like Magic System and Petit Yodé et l'Enfant Siro carried zouglou from campus parties into the mainstream, laying groundwork for the coupé-décalé wave that followed.
Afrobeat's Place in That Lineage
Afrobeat International positions its programming inside that same lineage, mixing afrobeat's West African rhythm section with the energy those earlier Ivorian genres built, while promoting both established names and newer artists working in the style. The station's self-description as the best radio of Africa reflects a scene that has repeatedly turned local sounds into continental movements.
Listen to Afrobeat International Free on Radio Shuffle
Afrobeat International streams around the clock, and Radio Shuffle carries the feed live with nothing to install and no subscription required. Press play above for a station broadcasting from one of West Africa's most influential music cities.