Artist: Sir Victor Uwaifo
Song: Joromi
Genre: Highlife
Language: Bini (Edo)
Duration: 3:09
Ask any Benin elder about highlife and the name Victor Uwaifo will come up before you finish the question. “Joromi” is the song that made that name.
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He recorded it with his band, the Melody Maestros, in the mid-1960s, and it spread across Nigeria and parts of West Africa. It also earned him a place in history as the first Nigerian to win a gold disc in Africa.
The Benin City born guitarist went on to collect twelve gold records and was honoured with the MON in 1983. He passed on in August 2021 at the age of 80, but this tune still plays at parties from Benin to Warri.
Watch the official audio below or stream the classic on the Spotify player at the end of this post.
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Start reading now →Who was Joromi, the wrestler in the song?
The song is sung in Bini, and its story comes straight from Edo folklore. According to Afropop Worldwide, the lyrics were based on the legend of Joromi, a wrestler who dared to fight the seven-headed spirit of the underworld and was defeated.
Uwaifo paired that old tale with a modern guitar style shaped by folk rhythms, plus effects like tremolo. The mix worked. The record had sold 100,000 copies by 1969, and the success pushed him to resign from his job at NTA and go into music full time.
