AfroForce1 Records

AfroForce1 is a recording label launched in Berlin in June 2018 as a joint project between Universal Music International and the artist-management company Airforce1, built to sign African artists and market them into Europe. It was the initiative of Joe Chialo, who became the label’s managing director while holding the newly created role of Senior Vice President A&R for Universal Music Central Europe & Africa, a position Universal Music set up for him in 2016 specifically to scout and sign African talent. Chialo, born in Bonn to Tanzanian parents, later became Berlin’s culture senator.

In April 2020 the label extended into South Africa as part of Universal Music Group Africa, signing the Afro-house trio Mi Casa and singer Mikhalé Jones in partnership with Sipho Dlamini, managing director of Universal Music Africa (South Africa & Sub-Saharan Africa). Universal has also credited AfroForce1 alongside Universal Music Central Europe and Universal Music South Africa in the signing of Tanzanian artist Vanessa Mdee. The label sits inside Universal Music GmbH’s structure rather than as a separately incorporated company; no corporate register entry distinct from Universal Music was located.

AfroForce1 has no live standalone website; the domain once associated with it, afroforce1.africa, does not resolve. The most recent activity traced by trade press dates to around 2021, and it is not clear whether the label is still actively signing. Its ownership, however, is unambiguous: this is a Universal Music Group venture, run through Universal’s own Berlin and South African offices rather than as an independent business.