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King Sunny Adé

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King Sunny Ade will perform in London Friday 18th August alongside Ebenezer Obey. The two will share a stage in London for the first time ever!!! History to be made.

https://youtu.be/PYNQ4PxIKEE

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The show was postponed till Saturday 19th August ( today.

At the same venue.

It's still going to be a successful show any way.

The same venue and at the same time .

Let's go there.

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King Sunny Adé launches first US tour since 2009

 Posted by Riot Staff on July 7, 2016

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King Sunny Adé is celebrating his 70th birthday year with a return tour of the US, his first since 2009. The summer tour will include performances from New York City and Boston, through the Midwest and Southwest to the Northwest and California.

Boston Globe interview

 Category: King Sunny Ade , News

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Songwriting Legend Linda Perry On Working With Ringo Starr

The godfathers of british blues: cyril davies and alexis korner, the great american songbook: jazz covers, ‘the night’: the four seasons’ magnificent motown surprise, ‘the wildest’: why louis prima was the pre-rock’n’roll crazy man, best jazz songs: an introduction to jazz’s finest moments, the best terri clark songs: powerful, witty country essentials, dj snake and peso pluma team up for new single ‘teka’, ben platt shares ‘cherry on top’ video co-starring his fiancé, dickey betts, allman brothers co-founder, dies at 80, arooj aftab announces ‘night reign,’ shares ‘raat ki rani’, kate hudson announces new album, ‘glorious,’ shares ‘gonna find out’, ‘bob marley: one love’ to return to theaters for 4/20, library of congress selects records from abba, blondie, and more for national recording registry, ‘juju music’: king sunny adé introduces a nigerian genre to the world.

The album ‘Juju Music’ was the first of its kind, and opened the floodgates for other artists from Africa to go global.

Published on

King Sunny Adé wasn’t supposed to make music. Born Sunday Adéniyi Adégeye on September 22, 1946 to a royal family from Ondo and Akure, the profession was far outside of what was expected from Nigerian royalty. Yet, the Nigerian national treasure became an international star and elevated African pop music to new heights.

How the singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist got there is a complicated story. Many view the release of his 1982 album Juju Music as his (and modern African music’s) ascendant moment. But Island Records didn’t pluck him out of obscurity. Before Juju Music ’s release, Adé was already an established force in Nigeria, with his own record label and his own nightclub. He performed live shows consistently and released up to four albums a year, amassing a catalog already filled with dozens of albums.

Listen to King Sunny Adé on Apple Music and Spotify .

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The untimely death of Bob Marley in 1981 prompted Island Records founder Chris Blackwell to search for an “It-international star” replacement. King Sunny Adé and Bob Marley, however, were two different kinds of artists— from genres to messaging, style, and origin —even if, in the eyes of the Western music industry, they were of the same cloth. This flawed view rendered all international Black music the same, slotting it into the highly-contentious “world music” category.

Jùjú Music in Nigeria

Perhaps sensing this, Adé named the album specifically after the genre of music he was playing. When he was growing up, jùjú had primarily been folk and social music defined by Yoruba drums and vocals. After highlife music, juju became the popular, dominant sound in Nigeria during the second half of the 20th century. Derived from traditional Yoruba percussion, jùjú music was believed to have been created by musician AbdulRafiu Babatunde King, known as Tunde King . Along with pioneering musicians like Adéolu Akinsanya, Ayinde Bakare, Dele Ojo, Ebenezer Obey, Fatai Rolling Dollar, I. K. Dairo, and his main influence, Tunde Nightingale, Adé played the pivotal role in making jùjú popular both in and outside Nigeria.

“The name has been given to my kind of music by the colonists,” he told NYC Radio Live . Though the name comes from the Yoruba word “jùjú” or “jiju” meaning “throwing,” British colonists in Nigeria called the sounds they were hearing from various groups jùjú. What they didn’t understand was, he noted, “It’s a free sound.” This pillar of the genre gave Adé the license to experiment.

The predominant instrument of jùjú was the Iya Ilu, or “talking drum.” Adé innovated by introducing the pedal steel guitar to the music. In an Afropop Worldwide podcast, Nigerian poet and cultural commentator Odia Ofeimun explains that “Sunny Adé was special because he had a commitment to an instrument, the guitar, which made all the difference… Even if you didn’t understand the Yoruba language, you got into the stream of those guitar strings… He was a new kind of jùjú musician.”

Alongside his guitar work, Adé is one of Nigeria’s greatest wordsmiths. Part of what made him a singular force in jùjú was his fluency in proper Yoruba and modern slang. Before he spoke to a global audience, he had already mastered how to speak to (and for) his own, in a country of people disconnected by tribe and language and bound by borders and cultural exchanges. It’s no small feat to make music that becomes a joining force for all Nigerians.

Juju Music, The Album

All of this history was brewing underneath the sound Western audiences initially heard with his first worldwide release. Recorded with his African Beats band, Juju Music was composed of prior songs Adé had released in Nigeria. Adé partnered with French producer, Martin Meissonnier, who advised that the long song structures of Nigerian music would not work for Western audiences. So, Adé abridged a number of his Nigerian hits, making them more digestible for international release. Non-stop recording that would typically result in 15 to 20-minute songs was shortened and reworked.

At roughly eight minutes, “365 Is My Number/The Message” stands as the longest song on the album and is the only track titled in English. It features an elongated dance-break, familiar to the style of isolated instrumentation in the drum breaks employed by pioneering hip-hop DJs. It’s accompanied by the beloved classic “Ja Funmi”– an anthem Adé has continued to perform. Translating to “fight for me,” “Ja Funmi” sees Adé flip the common phrase into a loaded metaphor he’s explained as, “You use your head to represent your God.” The weight of his words compounded with his convivial compositions made for music full of as much meaning as movement.

When it was released, Juju Music became subject to the misnaming and misunderstanding of Western listeners. The New York Times claimed the album was “the year’s freshest dance-music album,” later crediting it as having launched the “World Beat movement in the United States.” Tucson Weekly described Island’s marketing of Adé as “a monumental juncture in the exposure and development of world beat music; perhaps the first time a major American imprint had fully endorsed an African-derived music that was not reggae,” dubbing him, “king of the World Beat.”

Many were eager to compare King Sunny Adé to another famous Nigerian musician. The year of Juju Music ’s release, the New York Times ’ Robert Palmer wrote, “American listeners usually expect pop music from the underdeveloped nations to sound angry and militant, but Sunny Adé’s music sounds sweet and cool.” The “angry and militant” descriptor was, of course, referencing Fela Kuti’s Afrobeat. In the 1970’s, exciting music and artists were emerging in Nigeria. Kuti’s pioneering Afrobeat served as an artistic opposition to Nigeria’s military regime and the ruling elite. It was confrontational opposition music. It was the people’s music.

King Sunny Adé, meanwhile, was taking prominence as a leader in the (already existing) jùjú music. It was never political in the same way as Afrobeat; it was social, folk, and everyday. Adé’s Juju Music wasn’t a “sweet” alternative to Fela’s movement music contending with harsh realities. It was a part of that reality; another angle of the same nation with artistic expressions in abundance. Adé’s artistry isn’t estimable because jùjú music didn’t challenge Western audiences with discomfort and staunch political leanings. He didn’t serve to appease Western audiences with a counter offering; he expanded upon what was an organic, traditional sound that represented his people’s feel-good music, laced with traditional proverbs and packed with profundity.

Juju Music was the first of its kind and opened the floodgates for other artists from the continent to go global. Adé’s role with this international release was to continue communicating his culture to his people in old and new ways and to speak to the souls of everyone else. King Sunny Adé and Juju Music did as much – if not more – for the Western music scene than the reverse.

This article was first published in 2020. We are republishing it today, in celebration of King Sunny Ade’s birthday. Black Music Reframed is an ongoing editorial series on uDiscover Music that seeks to encourage a different lens, a wider lens, a new lens, when considering Black music; one not defined by genre parameters or labels, but by the creators. Sales and charts and firsts and rarities are important. But artists, music, and moments that shape culture aren’t always best-sellers, chart-toppers, or immediate successes. This series, which centers Black writers writing about Black music, takes a new look at music and moments that have previously either been overlooked or not had their stories told with the proper context.

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King Sunny Ade

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Home » Jazz Musicians » King Sunny Ade

King Sunny Ade

King Sunny Ade - guitar, vocals

For more than three decades, King Sunny Ade and his African Beats have been thrilling audiences worldwide with their extraordinary music. The Nigerian singer, guitarist, bandleader, and entrepreneur is the acknowledged master of juju, a cross-cultural sound that sends listeners on a remarkable journey into the heart of one of Africa's most vital cultures. His music draws from the many idioms and forms of the Yoruba language, and imbues it with a modern sense of spirituality, politics and honor.

Juju is a thrilling hybrid of Western pop and traditional African music that incorporates electric guitars and synthesizers with such indigenous instruments as talking drums. Lyrically, juju is rooted in the Yoruba tradition of conveying broad social and cultural messages through archetypal proverbs and parables. A remarkably convivial music, juju has at its heart a dynamic and interactive nature that incorporates a plenitude of grooves, call-and-response choruses and polyrhythmic breaks. Multiple lead guitars, harmonic counter-melodies, and shimmering waves of multi-layered percussion blend with sonic surprises - such as reggae and dub sound system effects or the lilting pedal steel guitars of American country & western - that traverse the boundaries of culture and genre.

King Sunny began his extensive career as a member of Moses Olaiya's Federal Rhythm Dandies then later became the bandleader with the Green Spots. Though he has released more than 100 records in Nigeria, King Sunny first became known in the U.S. after his first international album, on Island Records “Juju Music.” (’82) The album's lead track, "Jafunmi," became an instant classic, a juju anthem that Adé still plays in every show. Two more Island albums appeared, “Synchro System,” (‘83) and “Aura.” (‘84). When Island then wanted to make more drastic changes to Adé's sound, he balked, and left the label. For the next decade, Adé kept touring, but recorded no new music for the international market. Two live releases appeared, notably “Live Live Juju.” (Rykodisc 1988)

Adé signed with Mesa in 1995, and produced three excellent recordings, including “E Dide Get Up.” (’95) The follow up, “Odu,” (‘98) recorded at Dockside Studios in Maurice, Lousianna, was equally strong, and with “Seven Degrees North,” (2000) recorded at Blue Jay Studio in Carlyle, Massachusetts, it is abundantly clear that Adé's career, music, and band were now on solid footing.

There are several current releases out on the African Pop label as “Dr. Sehendemi,” and “Omo Wunmi,” both from 2003. There are of course many reissues available from his earlier periods some are under the title of “The Guitar Master,” and are available in several volumes.

In January 2002, he completed a four year term as President of The Performing Musicians Assoc. of Nigeria (the national musicians union) Still performing weekly at a wide variety of parties and events, both public and private, King Sunny Adé intends to use his newly recaptured free time to focus on his music.

In his continuing efforts to support African music, Sunny has also established the King Sunny Ade Foundation, which the Chairman founded with local civic and business leaders. The Foundation, which is situated on five hectares of land donated by the Lagos State Government, includes a performing arts center, a fully-equipped recording studio and housing for young performers and musicians, and offers financial assistance to both the children of dead musicians as well to elderly musicians who can no longer perform.

The Majestic “Return” of King Sunny Ade & His African Beats

by Chris May September 29, 2010

King Sunny AdeBaba Mo TundeIndigeDisc2010 A leading exponent of Nigerian juju music since the late 1970s, and in 2010 still the most sought after live artist for expatriate Nigerians in Europe and north America, vocalist and guitarist King Sunny Ade once rivalled Afrobeat's Fela Kuti and Zairean rumba's Franco with the frequency of his album releases. Between 1975 and 1984, Ade and his band, the African Beats, released over 40 albums domestically, ...

The Return of the King: King Sunny Ade Releases First Studio Album in Ten Years

Source: rock paper scissors, inc. August 19, 2010

The Return of the King: The Traffic-Stopping, Hip-Shaking Wisdom of King Sunny Ade is Back on Baba Mo Tunde, His First Studio Album in a Decade King Sunny Ade is global groove royalty whose six-hour sets and butt-shaking beats are notorious from his native Nigeria to Nashville and Nagasaki. And now the master is back with Baba Mo Tunde (IndigeDisc; September 28, 2010), his first studio album in ten years, a pristine recording and double CD set that captures a ... read more

King Sunny Ade Cancels Tour

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman April 20, 2010

After canceling the first five dates of their North American tour last week, singer and guitarist King Sunny Ade and His African Beats now have scrapped the entire tour. Ade was scheduled to perform in St. Louis tomorrow night (Tuesday April 20), at the Old Rock House. A statement released today by Ade's management said:“On March 26th 2010 a tragic car accident took the lives of two members of the African Beats, talking drummer Gabriel Ayanniyi and percussionist Omo ... read more

STLJN Saturday Video Showcase: King Sunny Ade and His African Beats

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman April 18, 2010

The subjects of this week's video feature are King Sunny Ade & His African Beats, who will be in St. Louis this coming Tuesday, April 20 to perform at the Old Rock House. Since visa problems forced the band to cancel the first several dates of their tour, their St. Louis show now is the kickoff for the band's jaunt across the United States. Ade's style of Nigerian juju music ... read more

Jazz This Week: Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival, John Pizzarelli, King Sunny Ade, Ronald Carter and Russell Gunn, Lea Delaria, and More

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman April 14, 2010

It's an extremely busy week for jazz and creative music in St. Louis, with everything from big bands and straight-ahead small group swing to organ-driven soul-jazz, cabaret, free improv, and two or three different flavors of ethnic music fused with jazz.Let's go to straight to the highlights, described here in more-or-less chronological order:On Wednesday, singer and guitarist John Pizzarelli, who's always a good draw here in the Gateway City, begin a four-night run at Jazz at ... read more

King Sunny Ade Coming to the Old Rock House on Tuesday, April 20

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman January 14, 2010

Nigerian singer and guitarist King Sunny Ade, who helped popularize African music in the US and Europe during the 1980s, is back on the road and is bringing His African Beats to St. Louis to perform at 9:00 p.m. Tuesday, April 20 at the Old Rock House, 1200 South 7th Blvd (between downtown and Soulard).Rooted in Nigeria's Yoruba culture, Ade's music was some of the first so-called “world" music to gain wide popularity in the West, and his ... read more

King Sunny Ade Inducted into the Afropop Hall of Fame

Source: rock paper scissors, inc. August 9, 2009

Barlow explained to the 10,000 enthusiastic fans at Celebrate Brooklyn that the criteria for selection were ... read more

Nigerian Legend King Sunny Ade's 2009 North American Tour

Source: rock paper scissors, inc. May 8, 2009

Stars of juju the Nigerian music that came out of palmwine ... read more

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King Sunny Ade: Life, Legacy and the Evolution of Juju Music

His Life and Career

Sunday Adeniyi Adegeye is a Nigerian juju singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist who goes by the stage name King Sunny Adé. He is known as one of the first African Pop artists to become popular around the world, and he has been called one of the most influential musicians of all time. King Sunny Ade is the only Nigerian who has ever been nominated for two Grammys. He has been honored for his contributions to music both inside and outside of his home country. For example, he has been inducted into the Afropop and Hard Rock Cafe Halls of Fame twice.

On September 22, 1946, King Sunny Adé was born into the Adegeye royal dynasty in Ondo State. Before moving to Abeokuta and Lagos in 1962, he grew up in Osogbo and attended the African School, Methodist School, and Saint Charles Grammar School. King Sunny Ade loved music as a youngster and aspired to be a performer, but no one would allow him since he is royalty, and as a prince, you cannot play music; music is performed for you. Consequently, he constantly snuck out to dance and sing along with music bands.

King Sunny Adé started with the Idou Woye music group. When they proceeded to perform for the coronation of a new King, he accompanied this troupe to Abeokuta. after the performance, he informed the band leader that he would want to see his brother in Lagos, so they handed him some cash. He then moved to Lagos and became a member of Moses Olaiye's band, the Federal Rhythm Dandies.

In 1966, Sunny Adé quit Olaiye's band to form his own, the Green Spots. In only two weeks, the single, titled “Challenge Cup”, which was his first big success in 1969, sold over 500,000 copies. He changed the band's name to African Beats between 1973 and 1974 because a cigarette manufacturer named Green Spots wanted to use them to advertise their brand. Because the African Beats split up in 1985, he once again changed the band's name to King Sunny Adé and His New African Beats.

Sunny Adé's band set off on a tour of North and South America and Europe in 1982. He became well-known throughout the tour for his dancing moves and guitar-playing style, which was modeled after Tunde Nightingale's. He made this decision in an effort to stand out from other Juju players.

The New York Times called him one of the greatest bandleaders in history. He was also described as a breath of fresh air and a force for good that would be felt for some time, while Trouser Press called him one of the most alluring and significant musicians in history.

In 1983, he released another album, Synchro System, after his tour. The record was a great hit as well and led him to his first Grammy nomination. He was therefore the first Nigerian to get a Grammy nomination. King Sunny Ade was assigned to the position of visiting music professor at Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife in 2009. In 2017, he returned to the stage in London with Ebenezer Obey for a musical comeback titled "A Night 2 Remember with the Legends."

Younger Nigerian musicians like Wasiu Alabi Pasuma and Bola Abimbola, as well as bigperformers like Manu Dibango (Wakafrika) and Stevie Wonder (who performed theharmonica on Aura), have also worked with Sunny.

The short recordings Sunny Adé made for Island Records served as a springboard for otherworld music performers including Senegalese Youssou N'Dour, Salif Keita from Mali, andmany others.

His Contributions to the Evolution of Juju Music

Jùjú is a prominent music genre from Nigeria that was inspired by traditional Yoruba drums. The term "juju" or "jiju," which means "throwing" or "anything being hurled," is the source of the name in Yoruba. Juju music was not named after juju, which is "a sort of sorcery and the use of magical artifacts or witchcraft widespread in West Africa, Haiti, Cuba, and other South American countries." Juju music has a magical undercurrent; it was primarily employed by the Yoruba people to conjure the powers of their gods while worshiping in their shrines using native African percussions. They use it to praise their gods in an effort to win their favor. Juju music has been used to applaud individuals at events and make them spray money when they are properly praised ever since, which is why it is still utilized today. It developed over a long period of time, but in the 1920s metropolitan clubs all over the world modernized it for the enjoyment of clubgoers. There are many people that sing juju music for the enjoyment of the public. Some perform it at festivities in palm wine joints, while others go from home to house singing praises to the wealthy, monarchs, strong men, and leaders. AbdulRafiu Babatunde King, well known by his stage name Tunde King, is credited with creating juju music. Although he wasn't the one who invented Juju music, Tunde King and Ojoge Daniel made the first Jùjú records during the 1920s, the same decade in which Tunde King initially popularized it.

Chris Blackwell, the founder of Island Records, began looking for a successor for Bob Marley after his tragic death in 1981. Despite the fact that they were considered to be of the same stock by the Western music business, King Sunny Adé and Bob Marley were two very distincttypes of performers in terms of genres, messages, style, and origin. This fallacious assumption treated all worldwide Black music equally and lumped it into the divisive "world music" category.

King Sunny Adé knew this, therefore he intentionally titled his subsequent album after the kind of music he was performing. When he was a child, Yoruba drums and vocals dominated jùju, making it largely folk and social music. In Nigeria throughout the second part of the 20th century, juju music replaced highlife music as the most popular and dominating sound. Along with trailblazing performers like Tunde Nightingale, Adéolu Akinsanya, Ayinde Bakare,Dele Ojo, Ebenezer Obey, Fatai Rolling Dollar, and I. K. Dairo, Adé played a crucial part in popularizing Jùjú both within and outside of Nigeria.

King Sunny Ade told NYC Radio Live that the colonialists gave his kind of music the moniker.Although the term "jùju" or "jiju," which means "throwing" in Yoruba, is where the name originates, British colonialists in Nigeria gave the noises they were hearing from diverse communities the name "jùju." They didn't realize it was a free sound. This fundamental element of the genre allowed Adé to be creative.

The Iya Ilu, or "talking drum," was the most common instrument used in jùju. Adé did something new when he added the pedal steel guitar to juju music. Odia Ofeimun, a poet and cultural critic from Nigeria, says on an episode of Afropop Worldwide that Sunny Adé was unique because of his dedication to the guitar, which made all the difference. Even if you didn't speak Yoruba, you were able to follow the flow of those guitar strings. He represented a fresh approach to jùju music.

King Sunny Adé is one of Nigeria's best wordsmiths, in addition to his guitar talents. He was a unique force in jùju music because he spoke both standard Yoruba and contemporary slang with ease. In a nation of people divided by tribe and language and united by boundaries and cultural exchanges, he had mastered speaking to (and for) his own before addressing a worldwide audience. It takes a lot of skill to create music that unites all Nigerians.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alaja-Browne, Afolabi. “The Origin and Development of JuJu Music.” The Black Perspectivein Music 17, no. 1/2 (1989): 55–72. https://doi.org/10.2307/1214743.

Ani, Ivie. “‘Juju Music’: King Sunny Adé Introduces A Nigerian Genre To The World.”uDiscover Music, September 22, 2022. https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/king-sunny-ade-juju-music-feature/.

ReDhalia. “King Sunny Ade: Biography, Net Worth And Songs Of A Legendary Musician.”Entrepreneurs.ng, September 2019. https://www.entrepreneurs.ng/king-sunny-ade-biography/.

VitamynT. “King Sunny Ade (Life and Career) - Opera News.” King Sunny Ade (Life andCareer) - Opera News. Accessed November 12, 2022.https://ng.opera.news/ng/en/entertainment/534756edf7743e7628b0f5811b4fee53.

Juju music - HISTORY OF JUJU MUSICJùjú is a style of... | Facebook. “Juju Music.” AccessedNovember 12, 2022. https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=603296456386929&id=1385301665023889.

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KING SUNNY ADE

King Sunny’s new release “Seven Degrees North” is a spiritually uplifting soundtrack to the democracy movement of Sub-Saharan Africa’s largest city, Lagos, Nigeria. The music takes on many issues: from those that express in simple praise, the Lord’s good works, to those that delve deep into the Yoruba world of proverbs and metaphor to deliver a deeper message about freedom and hope.

Juju is a thrilling hybrid of Western pop and traditional African music that incorporates electric guitars and synthesizers with such indigenous instruments as talking drums. Lyrically, juju is rooted in the Yoruba tradition of conveying broad social and cultural messages through archetypal proverbs and parables. A remarkably convivial music, juju has at its heart a dynamic and interactive nature that incorporates a plenitude of grooves, call-and-response choruses and polyrhythmic breaks. Multiple lead guitars, harmonic counter-melodies, and shimmering waves of multi-layered percussion blend with sonic surprises – such as reggae and dub sound system effects or the lilting pedal steel guitars of American country & western – that traverse the boundaries of culture and genre.

King Sunny began his extensive career as a member of Moses Olaiya’s Federal Rhythm Dandies then later became the bandleader with the Green Spots. Though he has released more than 100 records in Nigeria, King Sunny first became known in the U.S. after a critically acclaimed three-record run on Island Records in the 1980s. Since then, he and his African Beats have become a leading light in bringing African pop to the West. Recognized as the ambassador of juju, King Sunny has been called “the titan who dominates juju music” by the Village Voice. His last release “Odu” was nominated for a Grammy Award for 1998’s “Best World Music Album”. In 1995, KSA signed up with Mesa/Atlantic and released the acclaimed “E DIDE/GET UP,” the King’s first American studio album in over a decade.

“About 70% of my business is about music,” Sunny points out. “But I never allow any of the businesses, outside of music, to occupy too much of my time. I am lucky to have good managers running things.”

Recently elected as president of the Performing Musician’s Association of Nigeria, King Sunny continues to be a leading advocate for musician’s rights. He has put forth the first ever Musician’s Bill of Rights for ratification. This bill recognizes the basic rights of musicians, their creative work, and their right to earn a decent living. If all that weren’t enough to occupy most of his time, KSA also chairs the Musical Copyright Society of Nigeria, an organization whose mandate is to halt the rampant record piracy that plagues Africa and to protect the intellectual property and international trade rights of his fellow musicians.

We have many cases in court right now,” he says. “We’re fighting with the Nigerian Copyright Commission, because we want them to make sure that all radio stations, television stations and so on, pay the royalties to the musicians. And also to get more power to form a task force in order to arrest the pirates and to make sure piracy and the pirates are wiped out. My society is now doing a promotion for the people to know the difference between the pirated music and the originals. Most people say, ‘I didn’t know it was pirated. I just liked the music so I bought it.’ But they have to look for the originals, they have to look for the proper releases. We have also gotten the companies to put an official hologram on every cassette and every CD. All the recording companies are being assigned numbers from the Copyright Commission, so that if they find any official holograms on any pirated tapes, the government will know who is responsible. So, because of this, the pirating in Africa is not as bad as before.”

In his continuing efforts to support African music, Sunny has also established the King Sunny Ade Foundation, which the Chairman founded with local civic and business leaders. The Foundation, which is situated on five hectares of land donated by the Lagos State Government, includes a performing arts center, a fully-equipped recording studio and housing for young performers and musicians, and offers financial assistance to both the children of dead musicians as well to elderly musicians who can no longer perform.

“The motive behind the Foundation is to see the underprivileged people of different areas, different professions, benefit from my success,” says King Sunny. “Those who want to be musicians, those who want to study music, those who want to study acting, they can all be part of the King Sunny Ade Foundation. Even those who are old, who can no longer do certain things, they are part of it.

“I think it is better for me to do this while I’m still alive,” the Chairman continues. “Most foundations are established after the death of the founder. I want to see it work. I just want the King Sunny Ade Foundation to remain, to be immortal, and if God permits, I will continue to do it.”

A longtime supporter of Nigerian political unity, in 1996, King Sunny created an eclectic African supergroup to record the song, “The Way Forward.” KSA brought together a number of different Nigerian stars from differing ethnic backgrounds to address the continuing problem of Africa’s cultural dissents.

“A friend and I co-wrote the song with the idea of getting different musicians from different traditions together,” KSA says. “I play with so many different people around the whole world, I began thinking, ‘What would be my contribution to my country?’ The politics of Nigeria are so bitter, which I try not to involve into my music, but no matter what you do, as an artist, your contribution is to tell the people to be proud that this is our country. So I thought it would be good for Nigeria’s musicians to come together to make ‘The Way Forward.’ It doesn’t have to do with the government, it has to do with the people. The people have to know this is our country, and only together can we make it work.”

“Whatever you do in life, you have to find time to enjoy yourself,” King Sunny explains, “because no matter what you do, no matter how much money you have, no matter how good a person you may be, tomorrow somebody else will come and you are going to be part of history. So what I preach is what you need to do is to do good, so you leave a legacy behind you. If you truly love your neighbor as you love yourself, that will continue when you’re gone.”

Bábá Mo Túndé

Complete track listing, seven degrees north.

Samba Suku Suku Bam Bam Appreciation Ode Ma Ti P’Ogidam Soko Solution

Ogidam O Ni Se Barber Ariya Merciful God Sijuade Congratulations

“Named for the position of Lagos relative to the equator, King Sunny Ade’s “Seven Degrees North” is an optimistic album, buoyed by what the liner notes call “a heavy new rhythm of democracy.” Washington Post “The James Brown band in a triple exposure.” New York Times “King Sunny Ade is the undisputed king of juju music, the dance-inspiring hybrid of western pop and traditional African music with roots in the guitar tradition of Nigeria. Although he’s yet to equal the success that he enjoyed with his early-1980s albums and American tours, Ade and his band, His African Beats, continue to weave an infectious blend of electric guitars, synthesizers and multi-layered percussion…” All Music Guide “The jubilation of freedom rings buoyantly throughout….a gorgeous salutation to God, music, freedom and African pride.” CMJ “His finest and most uniformly inspired domestically released recording in many years.” JazzTimes

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King Sunny Ade

The vanguard of the first international Afropop invasion, he makes juju unforgettable. An explosive mixture of thundering grooves, glorious call and more...

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Past Events

Here are the most recent UK tour dates we had listed for King Sunny Ade. Were you there?

• Aug 18 2017 London, Transformation House King Sunny Ade, Ebenezer Obey, Babe Ayewa
• 2017 May 29 Jun 04 2017 Primavera Sound Festival 2017 Jeremy Jay, The Wave Pictures, Cigarettes After Sex, Les Sueques, Let's Eat Grandma…
• Jul 24 2012 London, Theatre Royal Stratford East Keziah Jones, King Sunny Ade, Bez (2)
• Jul 21 2012 London Pleasure Gardens Angelique Kidjo, Baaba Maal, Hugh Masekela, Justin Adams, King Sunny Ade, Seckou Keita, Wizboyy, JuJu (3) …

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King Sunny Adé

Chief Sunday Adeniyi Adegeye MFR , known professionally as  King Sunny Adé  (born 22 September, 1946), is a Nigerian singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist in the West African musical style jùjú. One of the first African pop musicians to gain international success, he has been called one of the most influential musicians of all time.

In March 2017, he was appointed ambassador for the Change Begins With Me campaign by the Nigerian minister of Information Lai Mohammed.

Adé was born in Osogbo to a Nigerian royal family from Ondo, thus making him an Omoba of the Yoruba people. His father was a church organist, while his mother was a trader from Akure. Adé left grammar school in Ondo under the pretense of going to the University of Lagos. There, in Lagos, his mercurial musical career started.

Sunny Adé's musical sound has evolved from the early days. His career began with Moses Olaiya's Federal Rhythm Dandies, a highlife band. He left to form a new band, The Green Spots, in 1967. Over the years, for various reasons ranging from changes in his music to business concerns, Sunny Adé's band changed its name several times, first to African Beats and then to Golden Mercury.

King Sunny was influenced by the legendary Tunde Nightingale (early Juju pioneer extraordinary) and borrowed stylistic elements from Nightingale’s ‘So wa mbe’ style of juju.

He founded the King Sunny Ade Foundation, an organization that includes a performing arts center, a state of the art recording studio, and housing for young musicians.

He is a visiting lecturer at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile- Ife and recipient of the national honour of Member of the Order of the Federal Republic.

He is making a special appearance in FIFTY.

Stage performances

In the 1970s and 1980s Adé embarked on a tour of America and Europe. His stage act was characterised by dexterous dancing steps and mastery of the guitar.

After more than a decade of resounding success in his native Nigeria, Adé was received to great acclaim in Europe and North America in 1982. The global release of  Juju Music  and its accompanying tour was "almost unanimously embraced by critics (if not consumers) everywhere". Adé was described in  The New York Times  as "one of the world's great band leaders", in  Record  as "a breath of fresh air, a positive vibration we will feel for some time to come" and in  Trouser Press  as "one of the most captivating and important musical artists anywhere in the world".

His next album,  Syncro System  (1983), was equally successful, earned him his first Grammy Award nomination in the ethnic/traditional folk recording category, hence making him the first Nigerian Grammy award nominee ever

On 16 July 2017, King Sunny Ade announced that he would be returning to stage in London along side his rival act Ebenezer Obey for a musical comeback themed A Night 2 Remember with the Legends

A fusion of sounds

Sunny Adé's music is characterised by, among other instruments, the talking drum – an instrument indigenous to his Yoruba roots, the guitar and his peculiar application to jùjú music, that would easily put him in the same class as guitar musicians like Santana. His music is in the age-old tradition of singing poetic lyrics ("ewi" in Yoruba) and praise of dignitaries as well components of Juju (traditional African belief) called the  Ogede  (casting a spell). Hence, Adé's music constitutes a record of the oral tradition of his people for posterity.

Sunny Adé introduced the pedal steel guitar to Nigerian pop music. He introduced the use of synthesizers, clavinet, vibraphone, tenor guitar into the jùjú music repertoire such as dub and wah-wah guitar licks. Adé said he used these instruments not as an attempt to innovate, but as a substitute for traditional jùjú instruments which were too difficult to find and/or impractical for touring. The pedal steel guitar, for instance, was added to his repertoire as a sound-alike for an African violin.

Island records

After the death of Bob Marley, Island Records began looking for another third world artist to put on its contract, while Fela Kuti had just been signed by Arista Records. Producer Martin Meissonnier introduced King Sunny Adé to Chris Blackwell, leading to the release of  Juju Music  in 1982. Robert Palmer claims to have brought King Sunny Adé to Island's attention, his familiarity being from his life on Malta in the 60s listening to African Radio and Armed Forces Radio. Adé gained a wide following with this album and was soon billed as "the African Bob Marley".

Sunny Adé has said that his refusal to allow Island to meddle with his compositions and over-Europeanise and Americanise his music were the reasons why Island then decided to look elsewhere.

Collaborations

Sunny has collaborated with major artists such as Manu Dibango ( Wakafrika ) and Stevie Wonder (who played harmonica on Aura), as well as younger Nigerian artists such as Wasiu Alabi Pasuma and Bola Abimbola.

Sunny Adé's brief recordings with Island Records opened the floodgates for other world music artists like Senegalese Youssou N'Dour, Mali's Salif Keita and many others.

Grammy Awards

1987 comeback.

In 1987, Sunny Adé returned to the international spotlight when Rykodisc released a live concert he did in Seattle.

He soon employed an American manager, Andrew Frankel, who negotiated another three album record deal with the Mesa record label (a division of Paradise Group) in America. One of these albums was 1988's  Odu , a collection of traditional Yoruba songs, for which he was nominated for the second Grammy Award and thus making him the first African to be nominated twice for a Grammy. Apart from being an international musician Sunny Adé is also prominent in his native Nigeria, running multiple companies in several industries, creating a non-profit organisation called the King Sunny Adé Foundation, and working with the Musical Copyright Society of Nigeria.

In recent times, hip hop music appears to be holding sway with the electronic media in Nigeria with massive airplays. Nonetheless, Sunny Adé's musical output has continued to inspire a vast generation of other Nigerian musicians, who believe in the big band musical set up which Sunny Adé and late Fela Kuti are noted for. The musician Lagbaja is one of the very many musicians whom Sunny Adé's music has inspired. In 2008, his contributions to world music was recognised; as he was given an award for his outstanding contribution to world music at the International Reggae and World Music Awards held at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York.

2009 comeback

At the beginning of another round of tour of the United States and Canada, Sunny Adé, now known as The Chairman in his home country, was appointed a visiting professor of music at the Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife. In July the same year King Sunny Adé was inducted into the Afropop Hall of Fame, at the Brooklyn African Festival in the United States. He dedicated the award to the recently deceased Michael Jackson.

Hollywood career

In the 1980s Adé embarked on a career in Hollywood. His music was featured in the 1983 film  Breathless , starring Richard Gere, and the 1986 comedy  One More Saturday Night , and he acted in Robert Altman's 1987 comedy  O.C. and Stiggs .

Sunny Adé has received numerous awards during his career. In November 2016 he became a recipient of the AFRIMA award. In December 2016 he was inducted into Hard Rock Cafe hall of fame.

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