Yorùbá song, artist by artist

Widely called the father of modern jùjú. Born in Offa to a family from Ijebu-Jesa, he founded the Morning Star Orchestra in 1957 (renamed the Blue Spots) and performed at Nigeria's 1960 independence celebrations. He is credited with fixing the amplified accordion against a full talking-drum ensemble as jùjú's commercial template. (Wikipedia)

Dáìrò's 1960s catalogue predates the lyrics-database era entirely; recovering it would need a transcription from audio or from liner notes, not a search.

Formed the International Brothers in 1964 and developed jùjú's unhurried, sociable miliki style across a recording career reputed at some 660 songs. Especially prized for weaving Yorùbá proverbs and moral philosophy into dance music; received a Grammy nomination and Nigeria's Order of the Niger. (Wikipedia, Vanguard)

Took jùjú's talking-drum-and-guitar ensemble to a global audience. His 1982 album Jùjú Music (Island Records) was his international breakthrough; the 1983 follow-up Synchro System earned Nigeria's first-ever Grammy nomination. (Wikipedia)

“Synchro System” (1983) is omitted here: the only line found came from a single AI-summarised search result with no independent confirmation, not worth repeating as if it were sourced.

Regarded as the father of àpàlà music, built on gángan (talking drum), agidigbo (thumb piano), agogo bells, akuba, claves and a chorus of singers. Known for weaving Yorùbá proverbs and Qur'anic recitation into songs performed in sets running four to ten hours; co-founded Star Records with jùjú's I. K. Dáìrò in 1969, called the first African record label owned by its own artists. His 1971 album Oroki Social Club, Osogbo sold over five million copies by the early 1980s. (Wikipedia, PAM)

Born Sikiru Ọlọ́lade Ayinde Balógun in Ibadan; widely credited as the founder of fújì music, which he named after a trip to Japan. Led the Sùpreme Fuji Commanders (some 34 members), released more than 70 studio albums, and wove Yorùbá proverbs, Islamic praise, and social commentary into largely improvised, chanted performance. (Wikipedia)

Fújì is an oral-performance genre first: professional lyrics sites largely don't carry his catalogue (one lyrics page for “Cash Madam” states outright, “we don't have this lyrics yet”), and no accessible academic transcription turned up either. Most of what follows is title and context, not verse.

Other well-known titles, context only:

• Fuji Garbage
• Cash Madam
• Oke Agba
• Okiki
• Barry at 40
• Fuji Explosion
• Consolidation
• Music Is My Hobby

Joined Barrister's Sùpreme Fuji Commanders in 1975 (starting as an instrument packer), left in 1978 to go solo, and released the 1984 breakout Talazo '84, which gave its name to “Talazo Fújì,” his lighter, broader-appeal variant. Crowned “King of Fuji” in 1994; installed the first Mayegun of Yorùbáland by the Aláàfin of Ọ̀yọ́ in 2020. His relationship to Barrister is documented as mentorship, not rivalry: Marshal says he took the “Ayinde” name with Barrister's blessing, and later released a 2011 album titled Tribute To My Mentor. (Wikipedia)

“Adé Orí Òkin” (a praise song for a king's authority) is omitted as a table: only a secondhand paraphrase could be sourced, not quoted lines, and the one page with a paired translation was correctly declined as full-lyric reproduction.

A child performer from age eight, he released his debut album Ìbẹ̀rẹ̀ (“Beginning”) at 17. Unlike most of his fújì generation he holds formal academic diplomas; his band and style are known as “Bonsue Fújì,” a lighter, more melodic take on fújì than Barrister's, still built on kettle and talking drums with Islamic-praise call-and-response roots. His 1991 album Bubble topped charts for six months and won four Nigerian Music Awards; in 2005 he became the first fújì artist to win a Kora Award. (Wikipedia)

A 1997 car accident left him wheelchair-bound; he began his music career afterward, releasing 24+ gospel albums since his 1998 debut Bitter Experience. His style, “Gospel Tungba,” layers gospel lyrics over fast Yorùbá fújì and jùjú rhythms, a smoother, more devotional register than Barrister's, Ayuba's, or K1's secular praise-singing fújì. Founded Fresh FM in Ibadan in 2015, since expanded to five more cities. (Wikipedia)

A self-taught saxophonist who has performed since the early 1990s behind a signature mask, under a stage name that is Yorùbá for “somebody, nobody, anybody, everybody,” representing the anonymous common person. Draws on 1960s highlife, jazz, jùjú grooves, funk, Afro-Cuban and gospel, with heavy congas and talking drums. Debut album Colours of Rhythm (1992); We Before Me (2000) pressed politicians toward honesty and urged unity. (Wikipedia)

Known as “Pope,” the Czar of the One Man Band: an Egba (Abeokuta) musician who studied music in Ibadan and later headed a music department at Ibadan Polytechnic. Led the vocal group K12 Voices before going solo, pioneering a one-man-band format across the late 1980s and 1990s that fused folk, blues, soul, highlife, jùjú, and gospel. (The Lagos Review, P.M.Express)

Other known titles, no lyrics found:

• Mo Wo Kuro L'Eran
• Jẹ́ Kówó Wolé Mi
• Bọ́lá Bàdé
• Caro
• E Mura Sise
• Awadé

Born Olawale Ibrahim Ashimi in Okokomaiko, Lagos State; began recording in 1999 and released his debut album Brymstone in 2007. A pioneering figure in Nigerian alternative music, blending Afro-soul, folk, rock, R&B, and reggae with heavy Yorùbá-language songwriting; Merchants, Dealers & Slaves (2013) and Tabula Rasa (2014) are considered career-defining.

“Down” and “Rara Rira” were also checked: no verbatim lines could be sourced for “Down,” and “Rara Rira”'s chorus reads as vocables (scat syllables) rather than standard Yorùbá, so there was nothing meaningful to translate there.

Widely regarded as Nigeria's foremost contemporary folk artist. Fronting his band The Roots Renaissance Band, he blends Yorùbá traditional percussion and proverb-dense lyricism with folk, highlife, and reggae, drawing on Yorùbá oral wisdom (òwe, Ifá imagery) applied to honest work, patience, community, and social conscience.

The only artist here with an official lyrics-and-translation page (beautifulnubia.com), so both songs below carry the composer's own English translation, printed beneath each verse on his own site. © & ℗ 2023 EniObanke; reproduced here for private reference only.

His site's lyrics index confirms the same official bilingual treatment extends across at least 20 songs over multiple releases, not just this one album, so this source alone could supply much greater depth on this one artist later.

• ṢONṢO (2024)
• Huruhara
• Atunluto
• Amunudun
• Iwa
• Táabákú
• Sounbender
• Keere
• Oriojori
• Irinajo
• Kìlọ̀kìlọ̀
• Fẹ̀rẹ̀
• Awilele
• Jangbalajùgbú
• Voice from Heaven
• Seven Lifes
• Àpèjọ

Born in Paris to Nigerian parents, raised in Lagos from age two. Her stage name means “hawk” in Yorùbá. Debuted with the self-titled album Aṣa (2007), blending Yorùbá-inflected lyrics with folk, jazz, and soul, followed by Beautiful Imperfection (2010), Bed of Stone (2014), and Lucid (2019). She frequently moves between Yorùbá and English within a single song.

Born into Lagos Island's Kosoko royal lineage; worked as a graphic designer (he designed YBNL Nation's logo) before releasing “Sade” independently in December 2014, which went viral and got him signed. Credited with pioneering “urban highlife,” fusing traditional Nigerian highlife with Afrobeats and R&B. His early work, before his sound moved toward English-leaning Afropop, is the most substantially Yorùbá part of his catalogue. (Wikipedia)