Some publications have assigned Owoh’s birthdate to the early 1940s, but Nigeria’s P.M. He travelled far in the music world before his passing, and is remembered to this day even outside of his devoted Nigerian fans.Ī member of the Yoruba ethnic group, Owoh was born as Oladipupo Owomoyela in Nigeria’s Oyo state. His story, like that of many musicians, is a progressive journey in which we can see his choice in musical trends shaping in response to the events in his life. Owoh combined this aesthetic with a traditionalist spin on things to make his own brand of excellent sound. It developed from a traditional Yoruba genre called “palm wine music”, overlaid with danceable guitar rhythms, and, in the hands of many musicians, it also contained a strong element of Trinidadian calypso. Leading groups such as the Omimah Band, the Young Kenneries, and the African Kenneries International, Owoh remained popular even as Nigerian tastes shifted to the newer Juju and Fuji styles! Before this transition, the hot style in Nigeria and Ghana was called Highlife. Orlando Owoh enjoyed a durable popularity that has cut across generational lines in his home country and beyond.

Orlando Owoh died on 4 November 2008 and was laid to rest at his Agege residence in Lagos, Nigeria.A household name in Nigeria, Dr. With bands such as the Omimah Band and later the Young Kenneries and the African Kenneries International, Owoh remained popular in Nigeria, even as tastes moved to the newer jùjú and fuji styles. Orlando Owoh and his Omimah Band in 1960, and over a musical career of forty years became one of the leading proponents of highlife music.

His real name was Stephen Oladipupo Olaore Owomoyela.Īs a young man, Owoh initially entered into the carpentry trade until 1958, when he was hired by Nigeria’s Kola Ogunmola Theatre Group to play drums and sing. Orlando Owoh was a popular highlife musician and band leader. She breathed her last at her hometown, Owo, the headquarters of Owo Local Government Area (LGA) of Ondo State, southwest Nigeria region. POLITICS NIGERIA learnt that according to a family source, the deceased passed away on Thursday aged 112 years. Christiana Owomoyela, mother of music legend, late Oladipupo Owomoyela, commonly called Dr Orlando Owoh, is dead.

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