Post by Funke Abimbola MBE

“There is a telepathy in music.” - Sir Victor Uwaifo #Nigeria has lost another musical legend. 🎵🎵 Sadly, legendary Nigerian musician Sir Victor Uwaifo passed away yesterday. ✅ Sir Victor was the first Commissioner for Arts, Culture and Tourism in Nigeria. 🎸🎸 Popularly known as the ‘Guitar Boy’, he was also the first professional musician to be awarded the National Merit Honours of Member of the Order of the Niger (MON). ✴ He was invited to the State House by four Presidents and Heads of State of Nigeria. 👉🏾 Sir Victor was born in Benin City, Edo State, in the Southern Region of Nigeria. 👉🏾 He attended the Western Boys’ High School Benin and St Gregory’s College, Lagos and began playing the guitar when he was 12 years old, his earliest popular music influences being Spanish and Latin American music. 👉🏾 As a young man, he played in different bands like the late Victor Olaiya, late E.C Arinze, Stephen Osadebe and Fred Coker before forming his band Melody Maestros. 🎙🎙The band released the hit single ‘Joromi’ which became a popular hit and the most sampled song from his vast catalogue of music. I remember the song vividly from my childhood in Nigeria. 🎷Sir Victor also developed the Akwete rhythm sound and in 1969, launched a new beat called Shadow accompanied by a new dance also called Shadow, a mixture of Akwete and twist. 🎺 He was the first among his peers to attain monumental fame when he sold over 1,000 copies of his album, making him the first winner of a gold disc on the internet. 📀📀 He would later win seven other gold discs in the ‘Guitar boy’, ‘Arabade’, ‘Ekassa’ series and ‘Akwete’ music. ✅ In ‘Elder’s Corner’, a documentary film by musicians Ade Bantu and SIJI Awoyinka, Uwaifo described music as spiritual. 🪘 He built a museum in his premises in Benin which houses some of his greatest artworks. 🧑🏾‍🎓At 77, Sir Victor obtained a PhD in Architectural Sculpture from the University of Benin. His thesis was on ‘A Reinvention of Benin Royal Ancestral Pieces’. 🧑🏾‍🎓He was a lecturer at the Department of Fine and Applied Arts at the same university and was the Chairman of Joromi Organization, a multi-track recording and television studio in Benin City. 🙏🏾🙏🏾 Rest in peace, Sir Victor, and thank you for your legacy of outstanding music! #NigerianMusic #SirVictorUwaifo #GuitarBoy 📷 Photo credit: Soundway Records *Source: This Day Live Max Abimbola Sarah Akindolie Ayoboni Akindolie