Jamaican dancehall artist FyaVerse was named Best Zikomo Dancehall of the Year 2025 at the Zikomo Africa Awards, adding an African industry honour to his growing body of international recognition.
The award was announced in December 2025, with FyaVerse absent from the ceremony in Lusaka, Zambia. His representatives accepted the honour on his behalf.
The recognition places the Jamaican artist among the performers acknowledged by the Zikomo Africa Awards, an awards platform centred on music, culture and creative achievement.
For FyaVerse, whose given name is Fabian Wayne Edwards, the award represents a significant acknowledgement outside Jamaica’s established dancehall industry. His music has been shaped by dancehall while drawing from wider Caribbean and African musical influences, reflecting the increasingly fluid relationship between the two regions’ popular music scenes.
The Zikomo award also arrives at a time when African and Caribbean artists are finding more direct points of connection through streaming platforms, social media and cross-regional collaborations. Dancehall’s influence across Africa is longstanding, but the growth of digital music has created new routes for Jamaican artists to reach listeners and industry audiences beyond the Caribbean.
FyaVerse’s win was subsequently reflected on his official social-media profile, which identifies him as the winner of the 2025 Zikomo Africa Award.
The distinction is specifically for Best Zikomo Dancehall of the Year 2025, rather than a general artist-of-the-year category. That distinction matters in understanding the award: it recognises FyaVerse’s work within a particular musical field while placing dancehall itself within a broader African awards landscape.
The honour also illustrates the continuing exchange between Jamaican dancehall and African music audiences. While the relationship between Jamaica and Africa has deep cultural roots, contemporary artists increasingly participate in that exchange through recordings, digital distribution and international recognition.
FyaVerse’s Zikomo win therefore stands as a marker of that wider movement. It is an African recognition of a Jamaican dancehall artist, awarded in 2025 and accepted in Lusaka on his behalf.
Rather than defining an artist’s career on its own, the award represents one documented point in FyaVerse’s developing international profile — and another example of how dancehall continues to find audiences and institutional recognition beyond Jamaica.
FyaVerse Wins Best Zikomo Dancehall of the Year 2025
