D’banj, Tunji Oyelana, others to thrill guests at Glo organised ‘Evening with Wole Soyinka’
Famous folk singer, Tunji Oyelana, is coming back from London where he has been in the last couple of decades to join contemporary stars lined up to entertain guests at an event being organised by Globacom in honour of Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka.
The grand event, scheduled to hold at The Convention Centre, Eko Hotel, Lagos, on August 28, will also feature A-list artistes such as Oladapo Daniel Oyebanjo, popularly known as D’banj, Emmanuel Bezhiwa Idakula, better known as Bez, Bolanle Austen-Peters (BAP) Productions revered for their Broadway musical drama and Footprints of David Art Academy.
Oyelana, a former lecturer at the University of Ibadan (UI), bestrode the social scene in the early 1980s as a very creative folklore singer, who infuses his music with humour.
He teamed up with Soyinka to record a musical album that satirised the corruption of the Nigerian political elite at that time.
Oyelana is believed to have sold the most albums by a Nigerian High Life musician and is regarded as one of the most played Yoruba musicians in history.
D’banj is one of Nigeria’s most celebrated artistes currently ruling the airwaves. He is highly rated as a performer and singer-songwriter. He has won several music awards, the latest being the Evolution Award at the 2015 MTV Africa Music awards.
Bez, is another wave-making artiste on Nigeria’s music scene. He is a multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter and composer. He plays a brand of music known as “alternative soul,” a hybrid of soul, rock, jazz and R&B.
BAP Productions will add a touch of drama to the occasion. The production company was created to promote the Nigerian theatre industry through the production of world-class Broadway style theatre productions. It is the creator of SARO the Musical in 2013, a production that enjoyed numerous accolades and reviews from international media including the BBC and SKY News.
Footprints of David Art Academy, created in 2005, is generally regarded as the best children dance troupe in Africa. The group, with a drive for excellence in Performing Art, has been using art as a tool to drive positive change in the society. The troupe is committed to exploring and bringing out the best in its members to fit into international standard of performance in art, and have won many awards in the process.
Aside from Prof. Soyinka, others being celebrated during the evening include Caine Prize winners Tope Folarin and E.C. Osondu, as well as the 2006 Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa winner, Sefi Atta.
The event is being organized to pay tribute to the literary stars for their immense contributions to the study of literature and for putting Nigeria on the world literary map.
