1976
The debut, at fifteen
"Late General Murtala Ramat Mohammed" is released on Leader Records — the first recording by a female Yoruba artist to sell over a million copies in Nigeria. She had been singing publicly since thirteen.
Ìtàn · The Story
Scroll right to walk the decades. Each stop holds the record that defined it, the photographs that survived it, and the moment the genre moved. The rail never resets — it is the same journey the site itself is built to keep.
1980s
A decade at Leader Records
Islamic praise, social commentary and Yoruba rhythm held in one form. Gentle Lady. Indian Waka. The records that carried waka out of the compound and onto national radio.
1986
A new label, a new chapter
She parts with Leader Records and begins recording with Kollington Ayinla, whom she later marries, staying with his label until 1994.
1992
Crowned Queen of Waka
Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III, the Alaafin of Oyo, confers the title Queen of Waka Music. Since then the woman and the genre have been named in the same breath.
2000s
Beyond the record sleeve
Over forty albums, screen appearances, and a catalogue that keeps finding new listeners through loss, illness and return.
Today
Still on stage
Fifty years in, she is still performing — and still named by the women who came after her as the reason the stage was open at all.
In her words
A pull quote from an interview goes here — one sentence in her own voice, set large, with the source beneath it.
Queen Salawa Abeni · [publication, year]