Warner Music France’s French-Malian superstar Aya Nakamura is the latest superstar to feature in Fortnite’s popular Soundwave Series. The interactive and tailor-made music experience will kick off in the Fortnite universe from October 6th at 5pm BST and will run for three days.

Nakamura is the most listened-to Francophone singer in the world for the last four consecutive years running, racking up more than four billion views on YouTube in 2021 alone. The partnership follows Nakamura’s global release of ‘VIP’, which came out last Friday.

Oana Ruxandra, Chief Digital Officer & EVP Business Development, Warner Music Group says: “At Warner Music Group, we believe that the future will bring with it hyper-reality metaverses that will be persistent, synchronous, and live. At the forefront of this future is our long-standing partner, Epic Games. As music becomes increasingly foundational to their vision and strategy, WMG is focused on building at-scale, interactive and dynamic experiences for communities that are led by visionary artists like Aya.”

Alain Veille, President, WM France adds: “We’re so excited to announce our partnership with Epic Games and Aya. Through our strengthened partnership we were able to get a head start on learning Unreal Engine 5, to create an incredible digital version of Aya to feature in-game on October 6th. Online experiences like these are so important, as they breakdown traditional boundaries; enabling different generations of music fans to come together in one place from all around the world.”

Aya Nakamura finishes: “The collaboration is an opportunity to perform my biggest show ever to fans old and new, and from all around the world. I can’t wait to share my music with you all and be the first French artist to feature in Fortnite!”

Born Aya Danioko in Bamako, Mali in 1995, she later took the stage name Nakamura after the character Hiro Nakamura from NBC’s popular series Heroes. She developed her unique style of lyrics that blends the use of Parisian argot, Arabic and Bambara, the Malian language of her parents, as well as bringing a fresh take on Afrobeat, Pop, R&B and the Caribbean dance sounds of Zouk. Her 2018 album NAKAMURA surpassed one million album sales worldwide, and more than four billion streams on Spotify, making it the most streamed French-language album of all time on Spotify.

In April, Nakamura’s playlist and merchandise partnership with Balenciaga was championed by some of the biggest names in the world: Burna Boy, Kim Kardashian, Maluma, Liu YangYang (WayV), Megan Thee Stallion, and TWICE’s Naeyon. This high-praise cemented their long-term partnership, with Nakamura going on to appear as égérie for Balenciaga’s Fall 22 collection, joining the likes of Bella Hadid.