Jùjú music

This article is about the style of music, for other meanings of the word juju, see juju.

Jùjú is a style of Nigerian popular music, derived from traditional Yoruba percussion. It evolved in the 1920s in urban clubs across the countries. The first jùjú recordings were by Tunde King and Ojoge Daniel from the 1920s.

Following World War II, electric instruments began to be included, and pioneering musicians like I. K. Dairo, King Sunny Ade and Ebenezer Obey made the genre the most popular in Nigeria, incorporating new influences like funk, reggae and Afrobeat and creating new subgenres like yo-pop. This music, unlike apala and sakara, was not created by Muslim Yoruba, and is therefore secular. Ade was the first to include the pedal steel guitar, which had previously been used only in American country music.

Jùjú music is performed primarily by artists from the southwestern region of Nigeria, where the Yoruba are the most numerous ethnic group. In performance, audience members commonly shower jùjú musicians with paper money; this tradition is known as "spraying."

External links

*King Sunny Ade interview by Jason Gross from Perfect Sound Forever site (June 1998)
*Jùjú music on Nigeria-Arts website nice collection of Jùjú artists and music

See also

*Music of Nigeria