Nigerian icon 2Baba (formerly 2Face Idibia) has added another milestone to a storied career: Billboard staff have named his 2004 breakout hit “African Queen” No. 1 on The 50 Best Afrobeats Songs of All Time—a critics’ list celebrating the sound’s evolution, reach, and impact across continents.
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Released in 2004 as the signature track from 2Baba’s debut solo album Face 2 Face, “African Queen” fused tender guitar lines with a pan-African love letter that helped usher Afrobeats into a new era of pop visibility. The song later appeared on the soundtrack of the 2006 romantic comedy Phat Girlz, further widening its audience and cementing its crossover credentials.
Billboard’s editors say the ranking weighed multiple factors—including stylistic representation, local popularity, regional expansion, cultural impact and commercial success—reflecting how Afrobeats first gathered momentum at home before echoing worldwide. The list caps the genre’s “Afrobeats to the world” journey while making room for a broad slate of artists by limiting any single act to three entries across the 50.
For 2Baba, the accolade is a full-circle moment. After the split of Plantashun Boiz in 2004, expectations were high—but few predicted that his first solo smash would become the genre’s defining anthem two decades on. “African Queen” remains the template for romantic Afropop ballads that followed—warm, melodic, and proudly continental.
