Wizkid performs at London’s O2 Arena in 2021.
Michael Tubi/Alamy Stock Photo
People’s Democratic Party candidate Atiku Abubakar released a choreographed video to Davido’s Stand Strong, which references devotion. It’s his sixth time standing for president.
Nigerian star Tems performs at the Glastonbury Festival in the UK in 2022.
Jim Dyson/Getty Images
Afrobeats truly conquered the globe, influencing music styles, packing out stadiums and lifting awards.
Frans Schellekens/Redferns via Getty Images
Nigeria’s Afrobeats stars love to identify with Fela’s activism and music - but their tributes are becoming opportunistic and empty.
Burna Boy promotes his new album Love, Damini in the US.
Prince Williams/Wireimage
With his new album Love, Damini he has conquered the world. But how much of his creative soul does he have left?
Burna Boy performs in Glastonbury, England, 2022.
Joseph Okpako/WireImage via Getty Images
Afrofusion is a music style that existed even before Burna Boy was born.
Nigerian musician Fela Kuti and his band in Harlem, New York, 1989.
Jack Vartoogian/Getty Images
Nigerian popular music - Afrobeats - is storming the world’s stages. But it’s just the latest stage in a vibrant century of recorded music in the country.
Orlando Julius Live in Concert in 2015.
Photo by Kmeron/Flickr
The Afrobeat star used music to promote and preserve his Yoruba culture - while entertaining diverse global influences.
Orlando Julius (left) on stage with his wife, the dancer and singer Latoya Aduke.
Photo by Jack Vartoogian/Getty Images
The man who taught Fela Kuti a thing or two has been all but erased from formal music history. He deserves much better treatment in death.
Musician Orlando Julius with his wife, dancer Latoya Aduke Ekemode.
Photo by Jack Vartoogian/Getty Images
He played every venue that mattered, a global face of Afrobeat. Orlando Julius embodied the groove.
Made Kuti performs in Lagos in 2021.
Photo by Andrew Esiebo/Getty Images for Global Citizen
Of a record nine nominees, seven are from West Africa. The global rise of Afrobeats music owes its soul to Nigeria’s iconic star Fela Kuti.
Tems performs in London in 2021.
Photo by Joseph Okpako/WireImage
Afrobeats emerged when West African pop music became cool. It has been boosted by the diaspora, big name collaborations and American culture.
Fenómenos do Semba from Angola.
Courtesy Fenómenos do Semba/Facebook
A year later, it’s clear that the dance promotes a conscious concept of Africanity – sowing feelings of tolerance and contentment that have conquered international audiences.
Nigerian musician Fela Kuti performs in Chicago in the US.
Paul Natkin/Getty Images
Fela’s nomination and possible induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will come at a cost.
Femi Kuti performing in Mexico City in 2019.
Photo by Pedro Gonzalez Castillo/Getty Images
The truth remains that no artist through Nigeria’s postcolonial years has contributed close to what Fela did – and continues to do - for human rights and social justice.
Nigerian pop star D'banj performing on stage in London.
Robin Little/Redferns/Getty
When pop star D'banj signed up to help get Goodluck Jonathan elected president, fans turned on him. But a hit song turned things around.
Nigerian rapper Falz sings in his home studio in Lagos.
Florian PlauCheur/AFP/Getty Images
Young Nigerians are protesting bad governance and police brutality. Where is the music to assist them?
The cast of Fela! performs during the 64th Annual Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall in 2010 in New York City.
Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage/Getty Images
How do elements of Fela Kuti’s music get reproduced by today’s pop musicians?
Fela Kuti, 1990.
Frans Schellekens/Redferns
How do two artists from different ends of the world get inspired by the pioneer of Afrobeats?
Victor Olaiya’s Papingo Davalaya album was released in 1986.
Premier Records
Highlife champion Victor Olaiya will be missed for his affable personality and resplendent performance style.
Street vendors sell their wares beneath a mural of musical great Victor Olaiya in Lagos.
Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP via Getty Images
Victor Abimbola Olaiya took up highlife music in the late 1950s and combined it with the trumpet to improve on its texture and aesthetic quality.