"Oh Africa" is a song performed by the artist

Akon Aliaune Damala Badara Akon Thiam (; born April 16, 1973), known mononymously as Akon, is a Senegalese-American singer, record producer, and entrepreneur. He rose to prominence in 2004 following the release of " Locked Up" (featuring Styles P ...

featuring

Keri Hilson Keri Lynn Hilson (born December 5, 1982) is an American R&B singer, songwriter and actress. She was born and raised in Decatur, Georgia and spent most of her youth working with producer Anthony Dent as a songwriter and background vocalist for ...

from the compilation '' Listen Up! The Official 2010 FIFA World Cup Album''. The song is a

charity single A charity record or charity single is a song released by musicians with most or all proceeds raised going to a dedicated foundation or charity. George Harrison's "Bangla Desh" single in 1971 is commonly acknowledged as the first ever purpose-made ...

and was released to raise funds for Akon's charity 'Konfidence' to aid underprivileged children in Africa. The song was released as a digital download on

52nd Grammy Awards The 52nd Annual Grammy Awards took place on January 31, 2010, at Staples Center in Los Angeles honoring the best in music for the recording year beginning October 1, 2008 through September 30, 2009. Neil Young was honored as the 2010 MusiCares P ...

night, January 31, 2010, along with the video. The

Soweto Gospel Choir The Soweto Gospel Choir is a South African gospel group. History The Soweto Gospel Choir was formed in Soweto, South Africa, by David Mulovhedzi and Beverly Bryer, and producers Andrew Kay, David Vigo and Cliff Hocking in 2002. The more than 30- ...

and young singers from many countries are also featured on the single. The footballers

Thierry Henry Thierry Daniel Henry (born 17 August 1977) is a French professional football coach, pundit, and former player who is an assistant coach for the Belgium national team. Considered one of the best strikers of all time and one of the best player ...

Didier Drogba Didier Yves Drogba Tébily (; born 11 March 1978) is an Ivorian retired professional footballer who played as a striker. He is the all-time top scorer and former captain of the Ivory Coast national team. He is best known for his career at ...

Kaká Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite (; born 22 April 1982), commonly known as Kaká () or Ricardo Kaká, is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. In his prime as a playmaker at AC Milan, a period marke ...

Fernando Torres Fernando José Torres Sanz (; born 20 March 1984) is a Spanish football manager and former player who played as a striker. He is the current manager of Atlético Madrid Juvenil A. Due to his consistent goalscoring rate as a young player, ...

Lionel Messi Lionel Andrés Messi (; born 24 June 1987), also known as Leo Messi, is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a forward for club Paris Saint-Germain and captains the Argentina national team. Widely regarded as one of the g ...

Frank Lampard Frank James Lampard (born 20 June 1978) is an English professional football manager and former player who is the manager of club Everton. He is widely regarded as one of Chelsea’s greatest ever players, and one of the greatest midfielde ...

Michael Ballack Michael Ballack (; born 26 September 1976) is a German former professional footballer. He is among the top goal scorers in the history of the German national team. Ballack wore the number 13 shirt for every team he has played for, except 1. FC ...

and

Andrei Arshavin Andrey Sergeyevich Arshavin (russian: Андрей Сергеевич Аршавин ; born 29 May 1981) is a Russian former professional footballer who played as a winger or midfielder. Arshavin began his career at Zenit Saint Petersburg in ...

make cameo appearances in the music video.

Release

The song is the third song performed by these two artists, the first being "Change Me" featured on Keri's debut album '' In a Perfect World...'', and the non-album track "Mic Check", the latter of which was produced by

Timbaland Timothy Zachery Mosley (born March 10, 1972), known professionally as Timbaland, is an American record producer, rapper, singer, songwriter, and record executive. He has received widespread acclaim for his innovative production work and distinc ...

Pepsi Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by PepsiCo. Originally created and developed in 1893 by Caleb Bradham and introduced as Brad's Drink, it was renamed as Pepsi-Cola in 1898, and then shortened to Pepsi in 1961. History Pepsi wa ...

has announced this as one of the official

2010 World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...

Theme Songs.

Music video

A music video has been filmed and was released on Grammy Awards night on 31 January 2010. Directed by Gil Green, it starts off by showing a colourful room with a map of Africa, which then shows 4 people appearing playing drums with dust shooting up from them. They also appear wearing body paint with the same pattern as the wall.

then starts singing as more scenes of the drum players is shown. Keri starts singing as the screen is shown being decorated with moving paint in front of her.

shows up again with a young African choir, singing with a sunset background. Other various people are also shown. Then scene skips to the body paint room were different people are shown with their face painted, a different country for each as they sing along.

is also shown dancing with Keri in the room with the moving paint between scenes. More Keri shows as she sings as the choir scene comes up variously. A scene also shows Keri with the choir. The Footballers

and

then are shown kicking water ballon like footballs hitting the wall as images appear of them, with similar body paint found on the single cover. Images of other scenes are also shown e.g. The African choir and Keri lying on a Zebra pattern like cover. The end shows a wall with the footballers cheering. VFX for "Oh Africa" were created by Baked FX.

Track listing

# "Oh Africa" # "Oh Africa" (Instrumental) # "Oh Africa" (Video) # "Oh Africa" (Making Of The Commercial) # "Oh Africa" (Making Of The Song)

Charts

Release history

References

External links

* {{Music of FIFA World Cup 2009 songs 2010 singles Keri Hilson songs Akon songs Charity singles All-star recordings Music videos directed by Gil Green Songs written by Timothy Thomas Songs written by Theron Thomas Songs about Africa Interscope Records singles Universal Music Group singles