Bongos ikwue biography examples

Biography

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Seventy-seven-year-old veteran soulful musician, Bongos Ikwe, talks to JOHN CHARLES about music, life, his recent ailment and other issues

Without any warning, you left the music scene for construction business even before you became old, why?

I don’t know if the question is correct for I have always done something alongside music. Years ago I had my music centre at Fadeyi, along Ikorodu Road in Lagos. While I was doing music, I had my transport business going. So I have always done something alongside music, so it’s not that I left music for anything, instead, I left something for music.

You gave Nigerians so many beautiful and original songs, what inspired them?

I think inspiration comes from where none of us knows. You just woke up one day and found a lady and a man there as your mother and father. You might look like them or not.

We don’t know a lot of things; I believe that inspiration comes from the Almighty. And that is putting it very simply and mildly as it is a bit more complicated than that. If I tell you I know more than that, I will be fooling myself and even fooling you, for we don’t know a lot of things.

Your songs are soulful, how much influence would you say Isley brothers, Elvis Presley and Harry Belafonte had on your music?

Very little. But I like Elvis Presley, in particular. I know he liked singing a lot of blues and gospel songs. I remember one of his songs that I like so much, where he was talking to God Almighty, saying, ‘But this time Lord, you gave me a mountain.’

I was influenced by the people you named but there are other people that influenced me like The Temptations.

You formed the Cubana Boys along with friends even before you went to university, why did you not just study music instead of engineering?

I don’t know why I did a lot of things; that is the kind of questions I can never answer because I don’t know. I don’t even know who I am. I don’

Bongos Ikwue, the music legend was born in Otukpo, Benue State, Nigeria, on the 6th of June In , he attended St, Paul’s Secondary school in Zaria, Nigeria, where his friends called him “Forge” because he was always making up (forging) and singing his own songs. In , While at Okene Comprehensive Secondary School, he formed a group called Cubana Boys with two other young boys, after which he headed off to the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), also in Zaria, Kaduna State, where he studied Business Administration.

While in ABU, he created his own band, called UniBello Brothers and also sang in a folk group, which was made up of university lecturers during which time, a chemistry lecturer, Mrs. Harmony taught him some Irish songs. In he founded and headed the Groovies band, which became extremely popular in the ’s through to the 80’s.

Many love him for his soulful, folksy songs, the most popular of which includes: Cockcrow At Dawn, Still Searching, Amen, Otachikpokpo and a host of others. His dedication to his music was obvious due to the high quality of the albums he churned out, and due to the sheer elegance and the electrifying energy of his live performances, where the band was always on key, and the musician himself was always true to every note. His ability to stay on the right note is an indicator of his hard work as a musician.

Apart from the raw beauty of his finely honed voice, another thing that set the musical genius apart is his dedication to the promotion of Africa and African values, by his continuous use of his native Idoma language in his songs. He is well loved by a vast majority of Nigerians with a fan base that cuts across language barriers and ethnic tension; he also has an international fan base. This is mainly because Bongos’ music genre is not easily deciphered. He is also a master of the African ideals he chooses to express.

Bongos Ikwue was always original; he never tried to imitate any artist, local or international and focused on perfecti

He began writing songs at an early age but his parents pushed him to pursue a respectable profession and sent him off to school. As he continued his songwriting efforts, he formed his first band, the Cubana Boys. While studying engineering at Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, he formed another band, the UniBello Brothers, as well as a folk group; he even learned Irish songs from an expatriate lecturer.

In he formed Bongos & The Groovies, which rapidly became a popular performing and recording ensemble that featured Bongos’ evolving original, highly personal style of Nigerian pop. He didn’t pattern his music after any artist nor did it fit any existing style. A recording contract with EMI led to numerous hits such as “Lagos”, “Tell My Girl”, “You Can’t Hurry The Sunrise” and “Otachikpokpo” and best-selling albums. His song “Cock Crow At Dawn” became the theme song of a popular Nigerian TV soap opera that ran into the Nineties.

But where other Nigerian artists such as Sunny Ade, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, Sonny Okosun and OJ Ekemode saw their music released internationally and toured abroad, the only Bongos recording to be released internationally was his hit “Still Searching”, which appeared on BLACK STARLINER, a compilation of African popular music released in the Seventies.

After three decades of performing he scaled back his musical activity and devoted more time to his entrepreneurial activit