Antwan Afram, (born 1 January 1998) known professionally as Ant Wan, is a Swedish rapper and songwriter. After initially releasing his first song in 2016, he has since achieved major success in the Swedish music scene. Afram made a few songs in 2017 and later in 2018 changed his artist name to Ant Wan. His debut EP, ''Wow,'' was released in 2019 and included the tracks "Wow", "Kall", "Rikare", "Fendi" and "Boo",Dopest.se Ant Wan släpper sin debut-EP "WOW"
/ref> each of which reached the top of the

Swedish Albums Chart Sverigetopplistan (, lit. "the Sweden top list") is the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from IFPI Sverige. It was formerly known as Topplistan (1975–1997) and Hitlistan (1998–2007) and has been known by its current name s ...

Early life

Afram was born on

New Year's Day In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Day is the first day of the calendar year, January 1, 1 January. Most solar calendars, such as the Gregorian and Julian calendars, begin the year regularly at or near the December solstice, northern winter ...

, 1998 and was born to an Assyrian family originally from

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

. He grew up in the Råby area of

Västerås Västerås () is a city in central Sweden on the shore of Mälaren, Lake Mälaren in the province of Västmanland, west of Stockholm. The city had a population of 127,799 at the end of 2019, out of the municipal total of 158,653, over 100,000 mo ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

and released his first songs in 2016. His first song was titled ''Jett on Jett'', and he initially released it under the same name of the area he grew up in (Råby), but he would later change his artist name to Ant Wan in 2018. Afram first released the song "Sativa" in 2018, reaching #67 on the

Sverigetopplistan Sverigetopplistan (, lit. "the Sweden top list") is the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from IFPI Sverige. It was formerly known as Topplistan (1975–1997) and Hitlistan (1998–2007) and has been known by its current name si ...

and staying for 14 weeks. In 2019, Afram released his debut EP ''Wow'', which contained five singles and had one single, "Kall", reach number two on the charts and bring the EP to the top spot, beginning his rise to fame. He would release his debut album, ''724'', the following year, reaching 2nd place on the charts and the main song of the album (under the same name) being certified platinum. Afram previously glorified a

gangster A gangster (informally gangsta) is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from ''Organized crime, mob'' and the suffix ''wikt:-ster, -st ...

lifestyle in his work and persona, but later backtracked on this and has since kept a relatively low profile.

Career

In 2022, Afram was featured alongside fellow Swedish rapper

Yung Lean Jonatan Aron Leandoer Håstad (born 18 July 1996), known professionally as Yung Lean, is a Swedish rapper. Widely cited as one of the most influential figures in the early cloud rap era, Yung Lean rose to prominence in 2013 with his song " Gins ...

for the latter's single "Paradise Lost". The music video for the single featured Afram and Lean in a wooden chapel and a dimly-lit underground garage, and was released in May of that year. In 2023, Afram performed his very first arena concert at the

Avicii Arena Avicii Arena, originally known as the Stockholm Globe Arena and previously as the Ericsson Globe, but commonly referred to in Swedish simply as Globen (; ), is an indoor arena located in Stockholm Globe City, Johanneshov district of Stockho ...

, a concert which sold out the same day that tickets went on sale. The concert was organized with the online magazine DOPEST alongside German concert promoter FKP Scorpio. In early 2024, Afram was awarded ''"''Artist of the Year" as well as the "Guldmicken" award for Best Live Artist at the Swedish P3 Gold Awards. Despite him winning the awards at the event, Afram was not physically present at the ceremony. In late 2024, Afram made headlines for performing a sold out concert at the

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area in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

, which set a new attendance record of 40,899 people. The attendance number of the concert broke the previous record that

Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone ( ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Referred to as the "Queen of Pop", she has been recognized for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, ...

held of 40,577 since 2015, and he made history as being the first Swedish hip-hop artist to hold his own concert in the area. He would thank everyone in attendance at the concert, saying: "For me, you are not fans, for me, you are my family. Whatever happens after the concert, if it ends, I will always love you." Afram is set to perform at the 2025 edition of Sthlm (Stockholm) Fields on June 28th.

Grammy rant controversy

In late 2022, although having been nominated for the Swedish

Grammis The Grammis (sometimes referred to as the Swedish Grammy Awards) are music awards presented annually to musicians and songwriters in Sweden. The oldest Swedish music awards were instituted as a local equivalent of the Grammy Awards given in t ...

, Afram took to

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

in a public post, where he questioned why he wasn't nominated in all the categories before exclaiming, "Grammis and P3 can run their prizes up their asses". Although he was initially furious about having received only one nomination from the Grammis, he would later accept his award nominations from P3.

Album takedown

Early in 2024, it was noted that Afram's album ''Leylas World'' was temporarily taken down from Spotify due to a copyright claim on the song "Jag and Du". The album was later put back on the platform.

Discography

Studio albums

Extended plays

Singles

As lead artist

Featured singles

Other charted songs

Notes

References

External links

Ant Wan
at

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

* *
Ant Wan
at

Genius Genius is a characteristic of original and exceptional insight in the performance of some art or endeavor that surpasses expectations, sets new standards for the future, establishes better methods of operation, or remains outside the capabiliti ...

Ant Wan
on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ant Wan Swedish male rappers 21st-century male rappers Living people 1998 births Swedish rappers People from Västerås