Onyeka Nwelue is today celebrating Orlando Julius because it is not only the music legend’s birthday but also good day.
Born on 22 September in 1943 in Ilesa, Nigeria Orlando Julius performs classic Afrobeat with a psychedelic edge, constantly pushing musical boundaries.
He is one of the initial Afrobeat forerunners, starting in the 1960s, he brought together traditional African sounds and rhythms with American pop, soul, and R&B.
He spent many years in the United States working in partnership with Lamont Dozier, the Crusaders, and South African musician Hugh Masekela, and his voice has been a fundamental part of the invention, growth, and popularization of Afropop.
Julius released a widely admired Afrobeat album titled Jaiyede Afro. In 1966, he released Super Afro Soul, which made him a national celebrity in Nigeria. The record’s dramatic, highly melodic incorporation of soul, pop, and funk was ahead of its time, and shaped the funk movement that swept over the United States in following years.
Listen to an audio of “Selma to Soweto” (one of his finest works), with a YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ls5XsvOk124
TK Swag, TerryTheVoice, Eternal Africa and Zulu vocalist Mocchachino Ochi, lend their voices to the original song.
Nwelue is a Nigerian filmmaker, talk show host, cultural anthropologist, professor and author whose book, Hip-Hop is Only for Children won the Creative Non-Fiction Book of the Year at the 2015 Nigerian Writers’ Awards.
