It is one of classic rock’s most enduring, mystifying, perplexing, and offbeat questions. One that hovers like the dry air in the Serengeti.
What, oh what is it about Toto’s song “Africa” that has made it such a huge part of pop culture in 2026, more than four decades after it first came out?
“Who knows? It’s hard to put into words! It’s just one of those musical entities that has permeated the culture and the souls of everybody!” offers Toto vocalist Joseph Williams on Zoom.
“There’s something about that chorus. That’s the part of the tune everybody knows. And it’s a timeless production that’s not pigeonholed in the ‘80s by the choice of sounds. It’s also got this primal groove that gets inside people.”
If fact, Williams recalls that once when the band was playing a casino gig, he was in an elevator with two couples. When one woman asked the other what they were doing that evening, she responded with “We’re going to see the band Africa.”
Sure, “Africa” was a hit when it was originally released in 1982, the second single off the band’s Toto IV album, eventually going to No. 1 on the Billboard singles chart. And its video which featured both a performance by the band and a subplot with singer/keyboardist David Paich (who co-wrote the tune with drummer Jeff Porcaro and co-sings with Bobby Kimball) as a researcher in a library played ad infinitum on MTV.
Even Paich was surprised by its success, given as he’d never even set foot on the continent (and has been taken to task by some for inaccurate lyrics). But even among all of Toto’s hits, “Africa” has the most staying power. Weezer released a 2018 hit cover version, and its been a staple of essential Yacht Rock playlists and the soundtrack to a gazillion TikTok and travel videos.
“Thanks to Weezer, it just gave Toto a shot in the arm. I’m very grateful to them and it’s very flattering. They did a great job with it, and it gave us a big boost with a younger audience,” Paich told the Houston Press in 2022. And back in 2015, bandmate Steve Lukather—then promoting a tour with Prog Rock heroes Yes, told us what some of their fans might think: “I know some people are going, ‘I don’t know. Toto with ‘Rosanna’ and ‘Africa?’ Is this shit going to work? I fucking hate ‘Africa!’”
“It’s had different lives through the years, whether it’s been in a movie or TV show, or covered, or in a rap song. It keeps getting put out there,” Williams adds. And when a stranger inevitably askes Williams what he does for a living, sometimes saying “Toto” doesn’t ring a bell.
“So then I ask them ‘Do you know the song ‘Africa?’’ And they’re like ‘Oh, yeah!’” Williams laughs. “The song has a life of its own, and there’s no one theory that works!”
Houston audiences will get to hear “Africa”—and much more of Toto—when they play the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion on August 7. Along for the ride will be The Romantics (“Talking in Your Sleep,” “What I Like About You”) and former Houstonian Christopher Cross (“Ride Like the Wind,” “Sailing”).
As a big, multi-act outdoor summer shed tour, Williams says that there’s one thing that’s different for him that an indoor theater show, and it has nothing to do with stage presence or set lists.
“For me as a singer, the thing I’m paying attention to is the climates of the places we go to,” he says. “It changes. And for me, at my age, I have to worry about too much moisture or being too dry. The voice is a delicate instrument. There’s more wear and tear on it for outdoor shows.”
Toto has released 14 studio albums since their 1978 self-titled debut, and the last was 2018’s Old is New. Like many other classic rock-era bands, there is a conundrum about recording and releasing new music in today’s market.
On one hand, record sales are a shadow of what they used to be, radio won’t touch it, and it would likely appeal only to hardcore fans. On the other, it keeps legacy acts fresh creatively and from strictly playing “the old stuff.” Which is ironically what a general audience usually most wants to hear. Williams says there’s even some division within the group itself.
“Well, Luke [Steve Lukather] is in that first camp. What’s the point of doing it if only the hardcore fans are interested? I’m kind of 50/50. I think it’s not necessarily a bad thing to do new music, even if it’s not a whole LP. We’re talking about doing something now, even if it’s just for the tour of the [upcoming] 50th anniversary of the band. We might put out something on our website, or kind of like an EP,” he says.
For the summer tour, joining Lukather and Williams are Warren Ham (sax, percussion), Keith Carlock (drums), John Pierce (bass), and Dennis Atlas and Rai Thistlewayte (keyboards). Paich may make occasional guest appearances as his health and schedule permit.
Williams has been singing with Toto (save for a period when he left the group) since 1986. That’s past the hitmaking days of “Hold the Line,” “Rosanna,” “I Won’t Hold You Back,” “Georgy Porgy,” “99,” and “I’ll Supply the Love.” But more than long enough for he and Steve Lukather (the sole remaining original member) to have a tight bond.
“I’ve been onstage with him for so long and actually known him since 1974, long before there was a Toto. We have a sort of mind meld and know what each other is going to do,” he offers.
“Some classic bands, the members can’t be with each other besides being onstage, and it’s the opposite with us. We’re very close friends and spend a lot of time together off the road. And that’s one of the reasons we’re still at it. Right now, the band is tensionless and everybody gets along and loves each other.” Williams also maintains a solo career.
Asked if there’s one Toto deep cut he’d like to sing onstage, he points to “Spiritual Man” from 2006’s Falling in Between album. They’ve tried to rehearse it he says, but it just didn’t hold up to the studio version.
Finally, Joseph Williams has a small but fun footnote in the Star Wars universe. He’s the son of famed conductor/composer John Williams, best known for his film scores for Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and multiple Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies.
Williams the younger wrote the original English lyrics for two songs used in 1983’s Return of the Jedi: “Lapti Nek” (played by Jabba the Hutt’s palace band in one key scene), and the “Ewok Celebration” at the film’s end when a bunch of fat teddy bears defeated the finest trained troops of the Galactic Empire on Endor.
“My dad knew I was starting to be a songwriter, and he had an idea for the music for those. I put some simple words to it. And then the sound designer, Ben Burtt, who created R2D2’s voice and the blaster and light saber sounds, translated [the songs] into a made-up language,” Williams explains.
However, George Lucas is known to continually tinker around with the Star Wars movies for theatrical and home video releases, such as adding new special effects, scenes, characters, and even context (Google “Han Shot First”). He replaced both of Williams’ songs with completely different ones more than a decade after Return of the Jedi first came out.
“George being George retooled a bunch of things on those original three films because he could do more with the visual effects. None of them improved those films to me, even though it looked cool,” Williams says, adding that he was never told about the substitutions.
“It didn’t bother me. But they switched them up to a more contemporary sound. They sounded more Earth bound and of the ‘90s. That was my objection to those. Not that it didn’t have my versions, but more ‘Wow, why did you go there? That takes me out of Star Wars.’”
Toto plays Friday, August 7, 6:45 p.m., at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, 2005 Lake Robbins. For more information, call 281-364-3010 or visit WoodlandsCenter.org. The Romantics and Christopher Cross open. $35-$360.
For more on Toto, visit TotoOfficial.com
For more on Joseph Williams, visit JoesWill.com
