How I Started Singing 50 Years Ago @ Age 15 – K1 Explains

It is no longer news that K1, the King of Fuji Music, is currently celebrating his 50 years on stage. So far, he has had 2 shows to mark this landmark feat. He has celebrated it in Abeokuta and recently in Lagos.

What is news is his recent announcement that he will be officially embarking on a tour of Europe with his full 20-man band. He is having 5 shows in 4 countries. According to K1, from 1st September to 9th September, he will begin his series of shows, tagged K1's 50 years on stage, Europe Tour 2022. On Thursday, 1st September, he will start from Amsterdam (Netherland), on Friday 2nd September he will perform in Paris, France, on Saturday 3rd September, he will be in Berlin, Germany, on Sun, 4th, September, he will perform in Brussels, Belgium, on Wednesday 7th September, he will be in Madrid, Spain.

As you read this, Tickets & VIP Tables are in hot demand. The tour is being packaged by Mike Fash of Orbit Entertainment who says the tour is a 2-in-1 tour to celebrate K1 at 65 and his 50 years on stage.

There is no doubt that King Wasiu Ayinde Marshal, is the face of modern Fuji music. He has proven beyond doubt that he is one of the best with his art and craft of that genre of music. However, that didn’t happen by accident. He learnt the craft from the man who founded Fuji music many years ago, the late Alhaji Sikiru Ayinde Barrister.

Let’s quickly remind you that K1 was the first man to have a fusion of fuji and hip-hop music. He did that with his Fuji Consolidation album and that shot Fuji music from just being a street anthem to what is generally acceptable across tribes, nations, and people.

On Wednesday, March 16th, 2022, K1 held the first colloquium for his late boss and teacher, Sikiru Ayinde Barrister, ten years after his demise. At the event, K1 revealed why he has remained loyal to the course of the late Alhaji Barrister.

Tagged Fuji Music Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, the event featured a lot of revelations about the origin of Fuji Music in Nigeria and one of the most striking aspects was when K1 revealed that he has spent about 50 years singing Fuji. The Mayegun of Yorubaland revealed his love, and respect for the man who took him at the tender age of 15 and transformed his life using Fuji music as a weapon to reshape his mind, thoughts, orientation and mentality.

Having spent so long a time with Barrister, it is not surprising to many that K1 today is seen as the face of Fuji music. At the colloquium, K1 revealed how close he was to Barrister and many other things he has done to change the face of Fuji music.

Below are excerpts of the speech which the Oluaye of Fuji delivered at the event.

“I want to say a very big thank you to all the team members who supported in putting this together and shared the burden with me. This has been a very tough responsibility for all of us but we volunteered to do this because of the love we have for this genre of music and the man behind it and also many of us who are still here today. We have been planning this for about five to six months now before we were able to come up with this, so I want to say a big thank you to all of you.

I’ve been hearing people using the word colloquium and I went to research and found out that the word means sitting together to discuss where we are coming from, where we are and where we are heading. And that is what we are doing here today about our hero, in the person of the late Sikiru Ayinde Barrister, whom we all hold in high esteem. It gives me joy to see that the almighty God leads and I follow to lead the rest of us who put this together. On behalf of myself and the rest of you, I say thank you and glory to God.

Permit me also to tender an apology because this is coming up ten years after the demise of Alhaji Barrister but in the words of the Yoruba people, “asiko to ya Olorun oun ni a se yi” we are doing this when God really planned it. Ten years after, we started the next line of action about the man Barrister and fuji music and the future of this genre of music. A lot has been put in place to make sure that we move in the right direction, going forward. Permit me again to say a very big thank you to the brain behind fuji and Opera, who has been my partner in the newfound direction to place Fuji music where it rightly and truly belongs.

For those who don’t like me, it is unfortunate that you can’t change the will of God. It will be better if you like me and join hands with me to seek headways not only for me but also for those before me, the man who established this, a pathfinder, the man who created an opportunity for those of us in the business today, somebody who has had fame and we can now say that we have a trade.

I started professionally at the age of 15 and if my calculation is right, I clocked 65 just a few weeks ago and I can boldly say that I have put 50 active years of my life into this business. If no one sees anything good in that, I can see something beautiful. Among all the musicians and artistes, I can say that I am the closest to Alhaji Barrister apart from our father, Evangelist Ebenezer Obey. I served him rigorously, and I learnt a lot of the rudiments of Fuji music from him and that has pushed me forward to be adjudged the best in fuji music.

Glory be to God almighty that either dead or living, Sikiru Ayinde Barrister is the first musician and entertainer that would have a colloquium in his honour all over the world. And we want to tell you that this shall continue annually and shall outlive all of us that started it by the grace of God. Another thing I want to quickly mention is what we have been able to achieve in the last two years, having waited for 10 years to have this done. Why did we have to wait for 10 years? We did because there were a lot of ideas and opinions we had to sample. We needed to seek knowledge from the ‘who is who’ of the entertainment art and culture and be able to find the mode of celebration and how to immortalize a man whose records cannot be broken. It took me a long time to be able to seek the support of people; I called professionals, the learned people, fellows here and there and so many people he never met during his lifetime but were his die-hard fans. We sat down a couple of times to brainstorm and what we have today is the result. That is the journey so far and we can say that the 10-year wait was really worth it because by the time we stepped out, our first place of call was Mike Adenuga’s house at Ikoyi where we held the first symposium, with a mighty revelation of names a lot of people I didn’t know in this journey of music. Names like Ajilore, and Ajisari were genres of music that evolved into the modern-day Fuji that we all enjoy today.

This is the time for all Fuji musicians all over the world to wake up from their slumber and defend what is truly theirs. We can do all in our power to further improve the image of Fuji everywhere we find ourselves. While the late Barrister was alive, I took up the challenge to be the one to run many things for him. I remember holding a meeting with the young Fuji musicians at that time to see how we can make all our efforts count in promoting Fuji music. That was how we started the Fuji Musicians Association of Nigeria (FUMAN) which is still standing today. With the aid of my personal lawyer and secretary, we were able to draft a constitution for the association. That was my journey from way back. While I was doing that, there was nothing that points out the fact that Wasiu was doing anything to take the shine or glory of Fuji away from Barrister. Nothing was done to fix myself in the game, I was just playing my role as a supporter of the creator of Fuji music and was looking for a way to place our genre of music on a pedestal where it becomes the envy of other genres. I wanted to surprise him all my life, I wanted to keep making him have reasons to believe that I will remain loyal to him all my life and to God be the glory, I have achieved that.

Barrister has gone, one day Wasiu too will go as well as many of you too, but those we are leaving this genre of music for would have something valuable to hold on to. Leadership changes and life continues but the best way to make an impact is to join hands with the current crop of leaders that you have to effect a change. I have the joy to announce to you that from this moment, a day will be set aside to celebrate Barrister and Fuji music forever in the nation. This is our own little way of immortalizing the man who created Fuji music, thank you very much for your time and support.”