Overview
Sunny Adé is a bandleader and guitarist who took juju music to an international audience. He is Yoruba, born at Osogbo in what is now Osun State, into a family with royal connections in Ondo.
Biography
Adé left school to play music in Lagos, working in highlife and juju bands before forming his own group, later known as the African Beats. Juju as he developed it layered Yoruba talking drums and percussion under electric guitars, pedal steel and long dance arrangements, with praise singing and proverb in Yoruba.
He built his own label, Sunny Alade Records, at a time when Nigerian artists rarely controlled their own catalogue, and released a long run of albums in Nigeria through the 1970s. Signing to Island Records brought Juju Music, Synchro System and Aura to listeners outside Africa in the early 1980s. Synchro System was nominated for a Grammy in 1984 and Odu in 1999. He has continued to record and tour for decades, and has held office in Nigerian musicians' and performing-rights organisations.
Notable achievements
- Developed and popularised the modern juju sound with the African Beats
- Founded his own label, Sunny Alade Records
- Released Juju Music, Synchro System and Aura internationally through Island Records
- Nominated for Grammy awards for Synchro System and Odu
Legacy
Adé is one of the musicians who established that a Nigerian style could reach international audiences without changing its language or rhythm, and juju bands still work from the arrangements he developed.