Mzansi Keeps It Local This Valentine’s Day
This year, Mzansi’s Valentine’s mood sounds unmistakably homegrown. Local titles are not sitting at the edges of romance playlists; they are shaping the centre, with Maskandi’s IVALENTINE and Amapiano’s Shela standing out among South Africa’s most included Valentine tracks. Even in the all-time love song ranking, local voices are holding their own. R&B, Afropop and Dance/Electronic artist Loyiso stands out as the only South African artist with four songs in the 25 most-streamed love songs of all time – Dream About You , What I Would Say , You’re So You and Let Me Love You , nearing 34 million combined streams. The clearest shift is in how younger listeners are naming and feeling love. In South Africa, Gen Z playlist language shows strong positive year-on-year growth across emotionally charged keywords, with “ rizz” up 35% , “ simp” up 38% , and “ yearn” up 321...