Greasy Tunes: Inside the Spotify showcase that brought Kenyan music and fashion together

Spotify's Greasy Tunes programme continued in Nairobi on Thursday night with a fusion of fashion, music and youth culture as Karibu Night took over Heltz House, bringing together some of Kenya's fast-rising artists alongside a fashion showcase inspired by the streaming platform's ‘Made In Kenya’ playlist.

The event, hosted in collaboration with Studio 18, featured live performances from Buruklyn Boyz, Sukuma, Afrikun, Solo, Angelo, Coco Kahi, Dauudi O., Love, Mani, Nig.Wav and Ojizzo.

The evening also saw Studio 18 designers reinterpret the official Greasy Tunes jersey and scarf into a series of runway looks inspired by the sounds, colours and cultural influences captured in Spotify's ‘Made In Kenya’ playlist.

According to Spotify, the playlist has become one of its strongest youth-focused editorial offerings in Kenya, with listeners aged between 18 and 24 accounting for 40 per cent of its audience.

The platform says Afropop, the playlist's dominant genre, recorded a 21 per cent year-on-year increase in listening among Kenyan users within the same age bracket.

As part of the Greasy Tunes programme, Spotify is also refreshing the playlist's cover artwork daily to spotlight artists performing at each event. On Karibu Night, the cover featured Nairobi drill group Buruklyn Boyz, who headlined the performances.

"’’Made In Kenya is not just a playlist, it is a reflection of how Kenyan youth are shaping culture in real time," said Bea Theron, Spotify's Experiential Marketing Lead for Africa.

"For Greasy Tunes, we wanted to take that energy beyond streaming and create moments where music could meet the other creative worlds it naturally lives alongside, including fashion. Karibu Night showed how strongly music, style and youth culture are connected in Nairobi."

The event also reflected wider listening trends among young audiences in the capital. Spotify's June 2026 data shows that listeners aged 18 to 24 accounted for 53.7 per cent of all streams in Nairobi, the highest share among the three African cities analysed — Nairobi, Lagos and Johannesburg.

Studio 18 co-founder Brandon Zamani said the fashion showcase was designed to demonstrate how music and fashion influence one another.

"The jersey and scarf were designed as pieces that could live beyond a single event. For Karibu Night, it was exciting to see different designers within Studio 18 take those pieces and reinterpret them through their own creative language," he said.

"The showcase became a way of showing how Kenyan music can influence fashion, and how fashion can carry the same energy people hear in the ‘Made In Kenya’ playlist."

Greasy Tunes is a 12-day cultural programme curated by Spotify, bringing together music, fashion, food, podcasts and sport through a series of themed events in Nairobi.

The initiative is aimed at celebrating Kenya's creative scene while highlighting emerging talent and youth culture.