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‪In Madagascar, forms of music that were initially exclusively regional have recently started to spread to the national level. One noteworthy change in representations lies in the shift from identity markers linked to regional and/or ethnic belonging to markers (assigned by the media from the capital city) related to a globalising register: “‪ ‪mafana‪‪ [hot] music”. Artists within this category have migrated to the capital and construct new musical forms combining regional or ethnic repertoires with modern international forms, in particular by asserting and laying claim to a “‪ ‪Black‪‪” identity by borrowing from modern African and North American musical genres. This phenomenon is linked to multiple imaginaries. It can be understood within a context of inter-ethnic relations at the national level, inherited from the colonial system and mobilising stereotyped representations between the “‪ ‪merina‪‪” (the historically dominant ethnic group from the capital city) and “‪ ‪côtiers‪‪” (those living on the coast). This article attempts to analyse the processes of “positive” re-appropriation of these stereotypes, as well as the link between the phenomenon and new regional and international mobilities thanks to “community” networks established via the diaspora and the internet (YouTube, Facebook).‪