More than 40 years after topping the Billboard Hot 100, Toto's “Africa” is still hitting new milestones: The 1983 No. 1 hit just surpassed 1 billion views on YouTube.
“Africa” — Toto's only Hot 100 to top four top 10 hits — is the band's first entry into YouTube's Billion Views Club.
The Toto IV The single has lived many lives since its debut in 1982, was certified gold by the RIAA in 1991, and then became an internet meme in the 2000s, even leading to a fan-fueled Weezer cover of the song back on the Hot 100, peaking at No. 51 in 2018. “Africa” is now eight times platinum, as of 2022's RIAA certification.
While “Africa” did not receive individual Grammy nominations, its parent project Toto IV won album of the year at the 1983 ceremony.
The billion-view music video takes place inside a library, where Toto's David Paich tries to match a piece of a page to his missing book. When it locates a book titled Africa, an African throws a spear that topples over the shelf and a lantern sets the book on fire. Also in the video, the band performs the song on top of a huge stack of books about Africa.
While Rolling rockRob Sheffield called the video “incredibly racist” in its portrayal of African culture in a 2018 articlein Advertising signIn the song's oral history earlier that year, “Africa” director Steve Barron seemed oblivious to any backlash. “There should have been [backlash]. But I don't think there was,” Barron said at the time. “Because I look at the video, and obviously I've traveled to Africa, I've been to Rwanda and I've been to Kenya, and… yeah, that's probably a white guy's point of view, outside the meaning of the song.”
Watch the “Africa” video again below:
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/toto-africa-video-1-billion-views-youtube-1235708776/
