Twenty years on from its creation, "zoblazo" urban dance music is as healthy as it ever was. The seventeen tracks of Meiway’s M20 (as in "Meiway 20 years") are solid enough proof of that. M20 is like a melting pot of all the musical styles that have influenced the singer since the start of his career.

Since 1989, Meiway has always been tuned into the trends of urban music in Africa and beyond, which is why his music – rooted in the beats of southern Côte d’Ivoire – always sounds so much of its time.

Here and there on this album you can hear influences from Caribbean zouk to Michael  Jackson, American funk, Congolese soukouss, hip hop, coupé-décalé and R&B – not to mention French variety singer Claude François.

It’s a powerful musical cocktail designed to get people up on their feet. And yet at the same, in the lyrics, Meiway casts his eye over society at large.  He sings of the seductive power of women, of Saturday nights out on the town, of woro-woros and Abidjan taxis, but also of the story of Mamadou and Bineta, of the children of peasants who died in the war, who have no other choice but to take up arms.

On the track 20th Birthday, Meiway (real name Fréderic Désiré Ehui) looks back on his career, from the teenager who struggled with his parents to be allowed to make music, to the hard work and tenacity that brought him success as Meiway. Twenty years later, he sings with emotion about his pride at having helped revolutionise music in Côte d’Ivoire.