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Bless the Rains: Toto’s ‘Africa’ Video Hits 1 Billion Views on YouTube


Toto's "Africa" is still reaching new milestones: The 1983 No. 1 Hot 100 hit just surpassed 1 billion views on YouTube.

While “Africa” didn’t receive any individual Grammy nominations, its parent project Toto IV won album of the year at the 1983 ceremony. The billion-view music video takes place inside a library, where Toto’s David Paich is trying to match a scrap of a page to its missing book. While Rolling Stone ‘s Rob Sheffield called the video “mind-blowingly racist” in its portrayal of African culture in a 2018 article, in Billboard ‘s oral history of the song earlier that same year, “Africa” director Steve Barron seemed unaware of any backlash.

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