The music of Nigeria includes many kinds of folk and popular music. Little of the country's music history prior to European contact has been preserved, although bronze carvings dating back to the 16th and 17th centuries have been found depicting musicians and their instruments. The country's most internationally renowned genres are Indigenous, Apala, Aurrebbe music, Rara music, Were music, Ogene, Fuji, Jùjú, Afrobeat, Afrobeats, Igbo highlife, Afro-juju, Waka, Igbo rap, Gospel, and Yo-pop. Styles of folk music are related to the over 250 ethnic groups in the country, each with their own techniques, instruments, and songs. The largest ethnic groups are the Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba. Traditional music from Nigeria and throughout Africa is often functional; in other words, it is performed to mark a ritual such as the wedding or funeral and not to achieve artistic goals. Although some Nigerians, especially children and the elderly, play instruments for their own amusement, solo performance is otherwise rare. Music is closely linked to agriculture, and there are restrictions on, for example, which instruments can be played during different parts of the planting season.
Adewale Ayuba, is a Nigerian singer known for singing Fuji music.
Fújì is a popular Yoruba musical genre. It arose from the improvisational wéré music, also known as ajísari, a genre of music performed to wake Muslims before dawn during the Ramadan fasting season. Alhaji Sikiru Ayinde Barrister popularized wéré music during the 1950s and 60s and conceived the term "fújì" in an unusual way. According to Barrister, "I came up with it when I saw a poster at an airport, advertising the Mount Fuji, which is the highest peak in Japan." Fújì should not be mistaken for the Yorùbá words "fuja" or "faaji," which mean leisure or enjoyment.
Jùjú is a style of Yoruba popular music, derived from traditional Yoruba percussion. The name juju from the Yoruba word "juju" or "jiju" meaning "throwing" or "something being thrown". Juju music did not derive its name from juju, which is a form of magic and the use of magic objects, common in West Africa, Haiti, Cuba and other South American nations. It evolved in the 1900s in urban clubs across the countries, and was believed to have been created by Ababababaa Babatunde King, popularly known as Tunde King. The first jùjú recordings were by King and Ojoge Daniel in the 1920s, when King pioneered it. The lead and predominant instrument of jùjú is the Iya Ilu, talking drum.
Yoruba music is the pattern/style of music practiced by the Yoruba people of Nigeria, Togo, and Benin. It is perhaps best known for its extremely advanced drumming tradition and techniques, especially using the gongon hourglass shape tension drums. Yoruba folk music became perhaps the most prominent kind of West African music in Afro-Latin and Caribbean musical styles; it left an especially important influence on the music used in Santería practice and the music of Cuba.
An agogô is a single or a multiple bell now used throughout the world but with origins in traditional Yoruba and Edo music and also in the samba baterias. The agogô may be the oldest samba instrument and was based on West African Yoruba single or double bells. The agogô has the highest pitch of any of the bateria instruments.
General Ayinla Kollington, born Abdulrasaq Kolawole Ilori to Chief Ayanda Ilori, a Kingmaker and Alhaja Asiawu Mofodeke Ilori. He is a Nigerian Fuji musician and one of the pioneers of the genre. He hailed from Ilota, a Town on the outskirt of Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria. He is also called Baba Alatika, Kebe-n-Kwara, Baba Alagbado.
Haruna Ishola Bello was a Nigerian musician, and one of the most popular artists in the apala genre.
Were music is a Yoruba music, which, like ajisari, is a way of using music to arouse the Islamic faithful to pray and feast during Ramadan festival in Yorubaland. Ajiwere or oniwere means "one who performs were music."
Tope Alabi in Ogun, a Nigerian gospel singer, film music composer and actress. She is also known as Ore ti o common and as Agbo Jesu. Tope Alabi obtained a Higher National Diploma in Mass Communication from the polytechnic of Ibadan, after graduating in the year 1990, she worked as a correspondent at NTA in Ibadan. She started singing at the younger age, when she joined the choir in her local Catholic church at the age of seven. Tope has ability to produce different traditional and modern beats. She had composed and released several songs and couple with Christian slangs that made her different.
The agidigbo or ‘’’molo’’’ is a large traditional plucked lamellophone thumb piano used by the Yoruba people of Nigeria to play apala music.
Sakara music is a form of popular Nigerian music based in the traditions of Yoruba music. It mostly in the form of praise songs, that uses only traditional Yoruba instruments such as the solemn-sounding goje violin, and the small round sakara drum, which is similar to a tambourine and is beaten with a stick. Sakara music overlays the nasalized, melismatic vocals of Eastern Africa and Arabic on the traditional percussion instruments. The music is often brooding and philosophical in mood.
Indigenous Nigerian music is the music originating from the various indigenous tribes of Nigeria. It encompasses mainly traditional music styles, although some forms have absorbed partial influences from genres performed by immigrant and foreign musicians.
Sikiru Ololade Ayinde Balogun, MFR, better known by his stage name Ayinde Barrister was a Nigerian-born Yoruba singer-songwriter, songproducer and music performer. He is regarded as a pioneer of Fuji and Wéré music. After his first break into music in 1965, Ayinde Barrister went on to release over 70 studio albums.
Ngozi Nwosu is a veteran Nigerian actress and producer. She began her acting career in Yoruba-language films, before making her home-video debut in Living in Bondage, an Igbo-language film considered to begin the video film era of Cinema of Nigeria.
Fuji Satisfaction: Soundclash In Lagos is a studio album by BANTU. The album features vocal contributions by Nigerian Fuji musician Adewale Ayuba. It was recorded between April and December 2004 at various studios in Cologne, Berlin and Lagos, Nigeria. The album was released in June 2005 by Piranha Music. Producer Herb V produced the album by combining programmed beats and samples with Yoruba percussion instruments like the Sakara, Apala, Omele, Bata and Iya Ilu drums, Additional production and instrumentation was provided by the Berlin-based Afrobeat Academy Band. The Subject matter on Fuji Satisfaction deals with Pan Africanism, homophobia and Yoruba identity. The album marked a turning point for BANTU as it took them closer to their Yoruba roots. It also stretched conventional perception of Fuji music by fusing it with Hiphop, Dancehall, Afrobeat and Afrofunk elements. The album debuted at number 2 on the European World Music Charts. BANTU was awarded the Kora Awards in the categories "Best Group West Africa" and "Best Group Africa" for Fuji Satisfaction
Terry Alexandar Ejeh better known by his stage name Terry Apala, is a Nigerian afrobeat and Apala hip-pop musician.
Debbie Klein is an American anthropologist and social justice advocate. She is a professor in the Anthropology Department at Gavilan College. Since 1990, Klein has been conducting extensive collaborative research in Nigeria with Yorùbá performing artists. Recognizing Klein's decades of collaborative written and video documentation of Yorùbá culture, the town of Èrìn-Òșùn, Nigeria bestowed an honorary chieftaincy title, Iyalode of Èrìn-Òșùn, upon Klein alongside her long-term mentor and collaborator, Chief Làmídì Àyánkúnlé. Throughout her career, Klein has advocated at local, state, national, and international levels for increased investment in public education as a means to achieve social and economic justice.
Waidi Ayinla YusufGbogbolowo better known as Ayinla Omowura was a Nigerian Apala musician born in Itoko, Abeokuta in 1933.
