Nigerian music icon, Osayomore Joseph is dead

<p>One of Nigeria’s music legends, Ambassador Osayomore Joseph is dead.</p>, <p>Osayomore Joseph, whose passage was announced on Saturday by the Edo State Chapter of the Performing Musicians Association of Nigeria (PMAN), died five months to his 70th birthday.</p>, <p>According to a statement by Comrade Willy Eghe-Nova, PMAN Administrator/Governor, Edo State Chapter, “PMAN has this Saturday afternoon, June 11, 2022, lost a great member and music legend, Ambassador Osayomore Joseph. May his creative soul rest in peace.”</p>, <p>Osayomore Joseph was born on October 29, 1952, in Ugha village near Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria.</p>, <p>He had a reputation as a freedom fighter, an activist musician with a long history of criticizing local and national political corruption through his music.</p>, <p>Osayomore’s music chartbusters ‘Efewedo’, ‘Baba Na Wa,’ ‘Leave us alone,’ ‘Evil days postponed’ are all in pidgin English.</p>, <p>In his early life and educational pursuit, Osayomore Joseph moved to Lagos when he was 19 years old and began his musical career as a member of the Nigerian Army Officers Mess band. it was in the band he developed his flute and guitar skills.</p>, <p>Inspired by Sir Victor Uwaifo, Fela Anikulapo Kuti and King Sunny Ade, Osayomore Joseph branched out and began releasing his own music in 1976.</p>, <p>After releasing several albums from 1976 to 1979 he returned to Benin to continue his career which was picking up support amongst Edo people in Benin.</p>, <p>He used his musical training to combine contemporary popular music — funk, Afrobeat, and highlife with Edo’s indigenous songs and rhythms.</p>, <p>The funky, percussion-heavy grooves earned him fans across Nigeria and among the growing Edo communities in the U.S. and Europe.</p>, <p>With this sound, Osayomore had several regional hits in the early ’80s, including “Efewedo,” “Ororo No Dey Fade” and “Soja Go Soja Come.”</p>, <p>Osayomore returned to Benin and found success between 1980 and 1985 with a series of fan favourite hits. This success c