Five months after highlife legend Daddy Lumba passed away on July 26, 2025, Ghanaians have crowned him with a different kind of tribute: streaming his music in unprecedented numbers that placed him among the nation’s top 10 most-listened-to artists of 2025.
According to the 2025 Spotify Wrapped data released today, Daddy Lumba ranked sixth among the most-streamed artists in Ghana this year, a remarkable achievement that the report describes as carrying “a different kind of emotional weight” compared to other artists on the list.
“His presence among this year’s top-streamed artists felt less like nostalgia and more like collective reverence – a nationwide response to loss, memory, and legacy in the wake of his passing,” the Spotify Wrapped report notes.
The streaming surge represents what many see as Ghana’s digital-age tribute to one of the country’s most influential musicians whose career spanned over three decades. Charles Kojo Fosu, known professionally as Daddy Lumba, died following a short illness at The Bank Hospital in Accra.
For many Ghanaians, turning to streaming platforms to revisit Lumba’s extensive catalog, which includes over 30 albums, became a way to process grief and celebrate his contributions to highlife music. Songs like “Aben Wo Ha,” “Theresa,” “Sika Asem,” and “Ankwanoma” saw renewed listening as the nation mourned and remembered.
The unprecedented streaming numbers underscore how Daddy Lumba’s music continues to resonate with both longtime fans who grew up with his sound and younger generations discovering his work. His soulful voice provided the soundtrack to love stories, while his poignant lyrics captured struggles, dreams, and resilience as indicated by Presdient Mahama, making his catalog eternally relevant to the Ghanaian experience.
Daddy Lumba’s appearance on the year-end list alongside contemporary artists like Black Sherif, Kweku Smoke, and Sarkodie speaks to his enduring influence across generations. While other artists on the list dominated through new releases and viral hits, Lumba’s placement came entirely from catalog streams, a testament to the timeless quality of his body of work.
