“I am from Isoko in Delta State. And because I wasn’t a Yoruba person, my friends in Mushin used to discourage me that my music wasn’t going to work. They were comparing me to Haruna Ishola and other singers in the Apala genre, saying that if they were talented and they are still where they are, how do I want to go about it. I started to break down how the music is going to work by adding up English and Pidgin to my sound. I try my best to split it so that people could understand it.” He also shared how he discovered his unique sound and gained confidence to put it out there.
Browsing: Apala
“Ayinla Omowura: Life and Times of an Apala Legend,” written by Festus Adedayo, is one of the most authoritative texts on the life of the Apala crooner whose posthumous profile I recently published. In my research, I came across this important and timely book, which is a necessary read for those interested in traditional Yoruba music and a snapshot of the post-colonial working class of Abeokuta. Read my review here. Dr, Adedayo, lawyer and veteran journalist, kindly responded to a few of my questions in the most exhaustive manner, in excess of what I needed for my piece. So here my full interview with him, a rare treat for lovers of Yoruba music:
However, there are many “ifs and buts” that could have changed the success story of Fuji since Barrister evolved the genre in the late 1960s from “Were”, an Islamic music used to wake Muslims up during Ramadan.
Oniluola’s death on Tuesday marked an almost total closure of the legends behind the genre of traditional Yoruba African music called Apala, popularised by late Ayinla Omowura. Oniluola was the lead drummer of that leading Yoruba musician. Killed on May 6, 1980 in a barroom squabble.