Tanzanian Bongo Flava sensation Naseeb Abdul, alias Diamond Platnumz, has been making waves both internationally and on the continent and his new song, ‘Waah’, featuring Congolese music icon Koffi Olomide adds to the already existing buzz around the artiste. The latest hit song gained over one million views within 8 hours of its release, breaking the record held by Nigerian Afrobeats artiste Davido.
Davido held the record for having more than one million views in 9 hours on YouTube for his song ‘Fem’ earlier this year.
‘Waah’ now has over 4 million views in 48 hours, an achievement yet to be attained by any other African artiste.
The ever so grateful Wasafi boss took to his Instagram to pour his heartfelt gratitude to his fans for always supporting him and his art. Diamond added that they were certainly the backbone to his success especially on digital platforms such as YouTube.
He started his YouTube account nine years ago and he has more than 4.5 million subscribers, the highest any African artiste can boast of. Tailing him is Nigeria’s Davido with a little over 2 million subscribers.
The Tanzanian superstar made history this June by becoming the first artiste in sub-Saharan Africa to hit more than one billion views on his YouTube channel.
According to Nsuri, the musician held a small party in his home to celebrate the amazing feat. “This was not an easy thing to achieve. Billion! Thanks to the fans. Congratulations to the boss on achieving that,” his Wasafi record label posted on Instagram to congratulate him.
Diamond is gradually making his way onto the U.S. market as he recently received props from Grammy award-winning songstress Alicia Keys, who described him as an “amazing” musician while talking about their recent collaboration for her latest album.
He features on a track titled Wasted Energy on the September released Alicia album. Talking about their collaboration on that song in a recent video that was shared by the East African musician on his Instagram page, the 39-year-old was nothing but full of praises for him.
“I also love that Diamond Platnumz was part of this, an amazing Tanzanian artiste who happened to come in and bless this track with his unique style,” the No One singer said. “I love how the worlds collide here. This is like world music collision at its finest.”
Flattered by the praise, the Number One singer responded with the caption: “This means a lot to me Queen ….Working with you was a dream come true… and i can’t wait for the world to hear what we still have in the store… #WestedEnergy track no.4 on #ALICIA the Album.”
Diamond is certainly one rising African act to watch out for because he continues to make his mark on the continent’s music scene, one record after the other.