By Bimbo Esho
Highlife music, now a century old, stands as one of Africa’s most enduring and influential musical traditions.
My dad Mr Femi Esho has been promoting and preserving Highlife Music since the age of twelve and up to his last day on earth.
His unquenchable love for Highlife music made me write my final year project on Highlife music as an undergraduate of the University of Ibadan. The project took me around the length and breadth of Nigeria, interviewing and documenting the works of popular Highlife Music greats.
Born in the early 20th century along the coastal regions of West Africa, particularly Ghana and Nigeria, highlife emerged from the meeting point of indigenous rhythms, traditional melodies, brass band music, and Western instruments.
From palm-wine guitar styles to dance-band orchestras, highlife became the sound of celebration, elegance, and social life, carrying stories of love, struggle, unity, and hope across generations.
Over the decades, highlife evolved while remaining deeply rooted in culture. Legendary musicians from Ghana, Nigeria and other neighbouring countries transformed it into a powerful voice of the people, using rich harmonies, lyrical wisdom, and infectious rhythms to reflect everyday life and national identity.
Highlife soundtracked independence movements, urban growth, and changing social values, while inspiring many other African genres such as Afrobeat, juju, and modern Afropop. Its ability to adapt without losing its soul is one of the reasons it has remained relevant for 100 years.
Today, as we celebrate a century of highlife music, we honour not only the melodies but also its practitioners, the preservers, the promoters and also the legacy it represents.
Highlife is more than music; it is history, memory, and cultural pride woven into sound. From vintage records to contemporary reinterpretations, its rhythms continue to unite people on dance floors and in quiet reflection. One hundred years on, highlife music remains alive—timeless, graceful, and forever resonating with the heartbeat of West Africa.
The recently held 100-year celebration of Highlife Music at Evergreen Music Heritage Foundation in Anthony Village was sponsored by our patron Dr DK Olukoya, who himself is an apostle of Music. His undiluted passion for highlife birthed the MFM Highlife Band. The band today is one of the most prolific highlife bands in Nigeria that churns out timeless Highlife songs that cut across ethic groups in Nigeria.
In attendance was also the Royal Bell band that took the audience down memory lane of popular songs by Victor Olaiya, Rex Lawson, Eddy Okonta, and Adeolu Akisanya just to mention a few.
Awards were given to three great promoters of this music genre ie Babafemi Esho, Mr Yinka Alakija, another great highlife lover and the popular radio voice Mr Ray Mike Nwachukwu. Also in attendance were friends and great lovers of highlife music.
