Nigeria’s music scene is on fire. Much like its film industry, Nigerian grooves and rhythms are making waves globally and for all the right reasons – one of them being 19-year-old guitarist/singer-songwriter/composer/Africa Peace Youth ambassador and teenage heartthrob Korede Bello.
One of the youngest Nigerian stars on the rise, the student from Lagos is no stranger to the stage, having begun his musical career at the age of seven, performing under the self-anointed stage-name “African Prince”.
While he has since abandoned the royal moniker for a more modest name (“Korede” means "a harbinger of good times to come"), the young muso has firm designs on ruling the local highlife music scene, colouring the dance genre with bold statements of technological innovation. His chart-topping grooves are a heady blend of traditional music elements and the latest studio trickery. (In his world, there is no such thing as too much vocoder or too many air-horn paarps!)
“My father loved indigenous music while my mother preferred foreign music,” he tells of his early influencers during one of his many recent press interviews. He credits his father for giving him his first guitar and financing his first studio session.
Korede's heart-rending love songs and trademark Elvis wink have won him wide acclaim with the ladies but he will tell you that it is songs in the key of "Godwin", one of his latest, that will define his next creative phase. In fact, these days he is more inspired to sing songs about nature and his environment. “I want to put out more songs for people to know that I am beyond love songs. My brand preaches love but it could come in songs you can dance to, highlife and different formats, not just the conventional slow rhythm…”
