Rihanna Caught The ‘Mnike’ Fever, Says Its Her Song of the Year

Fenty Queen, Rihanna recently expressed her love for the Amapiano genre.

In an interview with Complex at her Fenty X Puma relaunch this week, Rihanna revealed her favorite songs of 2023.

The international star revealed she’s a fan of single-streaming, highlighting two Amapiano tracks as her top choices. First on her list was “Unavailable” by Davido, featuring SA musician Musa Keys, which received a Grammy nomination.

“Album of the year? Ohh, am I an album girl? or am I a streaming single girl? Unavailable, on repeat. That and Mnike. It is spelled M N I K E.”

Rihanna’s second Song of the Year pick is “Mnike” by Tyler ICU. The track gained significant traction, providing the South African producer with increased visibility.

While many South Africans appreciated the shout-out, some found amusement in Rihanna’s pronunciation of “Mnike,” a Zulu word meaning “give it to me.”

It’s worth noting that Rihanna is not the first to face challenges with the pronunciation; an earlier incident had a US woman referring to the song as “M Nike,” sparking conversations on social media.

Despite the excitement amongst South Africans, some tweeps do not agree with the mum-of-two’s choice. They stated that there are better Mzansi Music out there.

“She doesn’t listen to mzansi music often so she won’t understand the situation on the ground. We are here in SA on the ground and iPlan is the song of the year” a tweep said.