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King Sunny Adé

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King Sunny Adé

Background information
Birth name	Sunday Adeniyi
Born	1946
Origin	Ondo, Nigeria
Genre(s)	Jùjú
Years active	1960s-present

King Sunny Adé (Sunday Adeniyi, born September 22 1946) is a popular performer of Nigerian Jùjú music. With his band, King Sunny Adé and His African Beats, King Sunny Adé became an international star across Africa during the mid-1980s, touring and gaining a significant audience in the United States and Europe as well. He is known as the Minister of Enjoyment. Born to a Nigerian royal family in Ondo, Adé left grammar school to pursue his career, which began with Moses Olaiya's Federal Rhythm Dandies, a highlife band. He left to form The Green Spots in 1967. He formed a record label in 1974, fed up with being exploited by a major label. Beginning with Juju Music, Adé began gaining a wide following as Mango Records, a subsidiary of Island Records, released his albums. He was soon billed as the African Bob Marley, and headlined concerts in the US. The New York Times described one of Ade's several concerts in New York in the eighties as one of the most significant pop music events of the decade. Soon after, Nigerian imports (mostly pirated copies) of his massive back catalog began flooding the Western market. Island, concerned about sales and Adé's refusal to include more English in his repertoire, cut him loose after his third LP, 1984's Aura which featured Stevie Wonder on the harmonica. In 1984, he and his music were featured in Robert Altman's comedy film O.C. & Stiggs. By the end of the 1980s, Ade recoiled back to his shell and released several albums in his native Nigeria, though many could not be compared with the Island releases. He continued to garner critical acclaim and widespread popularity in Africa. In 1987, he was yet again thrust into the international spotlight when Rykodisc released a live concert he did in Seattle and was given an astonishing embrace by fans across the globe who were eager for another international album release. He soon found an American manager, Andrew Frankel, who was sympathetic to his cause and believed in his potential; negotiated another three album record deal with the Mesa record label (a Division of Paradise Group) in America. One of these album was 1998's Odu, a collection of traditional Yoruba songs, which was nominated for a Grammy Award. He has also become one of the most powerful people in Nigeria, running multiple companies in several industries, creating a non-profit organization called the King Sunny Adé Foundation, and working with the Musical Copyright Society of Nigeria. Adé was the first to introduce the pedal steel guitar to Nigerian pop music after becoming a fan of American country/Western tunes.He was also the first to intoduce the use of synthetizers and Tenor guitar into the juju music repertoire. He is also well-known for his dexterous stage art, dance steps and mastery of the strings.