Africa by TOTO

Artist: TOTO

Genre: Pop

Length: 4:55

“Africa” is the third single from Toto’s 1982 album titled Toto IV. It is the group’s most popular song and reached #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 in early 1983. The lyrics comprise a heartfelt (if somewhat fantastical and stereotyped) vision of the beauty of Africa. There are undercurrents of embodying the continent of Africa in a female figure that is referenced throughout the song. Africa is, of course, an enormous continent full of a variety of cultures, but the lyrics touch on what a white...

Africa lyrics

Come on up
Hey
I hear the drums echoing tonight
But she hears only whispers of some quiet conversation
She's coming in 12:30 flight
The moonlit wings reflect the stars that guide me towards salvation
I stopped an old man along the way
Hoping to find some long forgotten words or ancient melodies
He turned to me as if to say
Hurry boy, it's waiting there for you
It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in Africa
Gonna take some time to do the things we never had
The wild dogs cry out in the night
As they grow restless longing for some solitary company
I know that I must do what's right
As sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serangetti
I seek to cure what's deep inside
Frightened of this thing that I've become
It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in Africa
Gonna take some time to do the things we never had
Hurry boy, she's waiting there for you
It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in Africa
I passed some rains down in Africa (I bless the rains)
I bless the rains down in Africa
I passed some rains down in Africa (I bless)
I bless the rains down in Africa (gonna take some time)
Gonna take some time to do the things we never had