LOS ANGELES — On a Friday night, one can typically find 23-year-old Cecilia W'Emedi somewhere with live music.
It's how she connects with new people because she's pretty new to Los Angeles.
This time, it was a Burna Boy concert at the Hollywood Bowl.
W'Emedi was born in Congo and raised in Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa. She moved to the U.S. five years ago. She said she's constantly balancing adjusting to life in America while also being careful not to become so Americanized that she's out of touch with cultural trends back home in Africa.
"I've had to remember to bring my authenticity and one of the ways is going to a Burna Boy concert as much as I would want to go to an Usher or Maroon 5 concert," W'Emedi said. "It's all about still having the same joy and inspiration for my culture as I do for other cultures."
African contemporary music, also known as Afro-beat or Afro-pop is as W'Emedi describes it, as diverse as the continent itself.
The sound can be as smooth as jazz, with a mix of island instruments heard in reggae, up-tempo rhythms that make you irresistibly want to dance and can have lyrics as provocative as hip-hop.
"It's rich, it's authentic. Even if you don't know how to dance you're going to be giving us a little something," she said. "I think it really does unite the world and it's a shame that the world has never recognized it as a global genre, because it is."
But now that's all changing. Grammy Award-winning Nigerian singer and rapper Burna Boy is the first Afro-pop artist to headline at the Hollywood Bowl.
In large part, thanks to Osita Ugeh, a promoter bringing African artists to perform in North America since 2013.
It all started when he moved to New York City from Lagos Nigeria. Ugeh said he would throw Afro-beat parties in warehouses to eventually change the narrative of how African artists perform in America.
Nearly eight years later, Ugeh's entertainment company, Duke Concept, booked Afro-pop sensation Burna Boy to perform on the same Hollywood Bowl stage as classical symphonies, rock legends, and jazz and blues greats.
"It gives you that level of Afro-beats has arrived," Ugeh said.
W'Emedi will be able to say she was there to witness history.
"I don't believe we necessarily needed this platform to tell us [Afro-pop is a global genre]," she said. "But this is like that double recognition that we are in the right place, and we are doing the right things."
With an ever-growing fan base, Afro-pop is rising to musical greatness on a global scale.