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,Nigerian pop 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.
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.
Salawa Abeni Alidu is a Nigerian singer. An Ijebu Yoruba from Ijebu Waterside, in Ogun State, she began her professional career in waka music when she released her debut album titled, Late General Murtala Ramat Mohammed, in 1976, on Leader Records. It became the first recording by a female artist in Yoruba Songs to sell over a million copies in Nigeria.
Ogun State is a state in southwestern Nigeria. As a Nigerian state, Ogun is the second most industrialised state after Lagos, with a focus on metal processing. It has good road and rail connections to the harbours in Lagos and Lekki. Wole Soyinka, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature 1986, lives in Ogun.
The Oyo Empire was a Yoruba empire in West Africa. It was located in present-day southern Benin and western Nigeria. The empire grew to become the largest Yoruba-speaking state through the organizational and administrative efforts of the Yoruba people, trade, as well as the military use of cavalry. The Oyo Empire was one of the most politically important states in Western Africa from the mid-17th to the late 18th century and held sway not only over most of the other kingdoms in Yorubaland, but also over nearby African states, notably the Fon Kingdom of Dahomey in the modern Republic of Benin on its west.
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.
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."
Abass Akande Obesere also known by his stage name Omo Rapala, is a Nigerian artist, Singer and record producer who is a native of Ibadan, the largest city in Western Nigeria. A popular Fuji musician, Obesere forced his way into the limelight through his unusual music style and slangs usage that throws his fans into a frenzy. Following the paths of other successful musicians such as Sikiru Ayinde Barrister, Obesere also has taken his own brand of Fuji music all over the world. He was initially signed with Sony Music but moved onto other labels after payment disputes. For most of his musical career, he had a long-time rivalry with K1 De Ultimate who is also a popular Fuji musician.
Alamu Atatalo was a pioneer of sekere, a type of traditional Yoruba music. A native of Ibadan, he was popular in Yorubaland throughout the 1950s and early 1960s. By the middle of the 1960s, however, his popularity began to wane when he was incriminated, in a criminal frame-up, by his detractors. As a result, he struggled relentlessly, for more than a decade, to clear his name. Ultimately, he bounced back and reclaimed his position as the "king of sekere" in the mid-70s by releasing several hit LP records. His version of sekere music and Alhaji Dauda Epo-Akara's were music dominated the Ibadan party scenes until the advent of Alhaji Sikiru Ayinde Barrister's fuji music.
Ayinde Bakare was a pioneering Yoruba jùjú and highlife musician in Nigeria.
Bola Abimbola is a Nigerian vocalist, recording artist, and record producer from Lagos, Nigeria.
Ayo Shonaiya is a filmmaker and lawyer, he was also a music talent agent who has managed many of Nigeria's artists. The list include Fuji musician Wasiu Ayinde Marshall, pop star D'banj, music producer Don Jazzy and rapper Eldee the Don. He has also represented former beauty queen and rapper Muna and global music star Akon. He is the founder of entertainment and media management company The RMG Company in the UK and Nigeria, and Managing Partner at the Lagos-based law firm Shonaiya & Co.
Wasiu Alabi Odetola(Pasuma) (born 27 November 1967), also known as "Oganla", "Gauzu Fuji", "Ijoba Fuji" is a Fuji musician, Nigerian film actor.
Akorede Babatunde Okunola also known by stage name Saheed Osupa or King Saheed Osupa (K.S.O) is a Nigerian Fuji, musician, film actor, and Hip Fuji Creator.
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.
Saliu Akanmu Adetunji was a Nigerian monarch who was the 41st Olubadan of Ibadan from his coronation in 2016 till his death in 2022.
Sulaimon Alao Adekunle popularly known by his stage name KS1 Malaika is a Nigerian Fuji musician who started playing and performing music from an early age in a quranic school in the suburb of Lagos known as Agege and further paying his dues through Were before forming his first Fuji band in 1983
The Kiriji War, also known as the Ekiti–Parapo War, was a 16-year-long civil war between the subethnic kingdoms of the Yoruba people, specifically divided between the Western Yoruba, which was mainly the Ibadan and Oyo-speaking Yorubas, and the Eastern Yoruba, who were the Ekiti people, Ijesha, Ijebu people, and others.
