Super Opong Stars
SUPER OPONG STARS (SOS), led by Ghanaian musician Kyekyeku, offers a brand of thick pulsating Highlife music that on any day excites the audience, socially distanced or not, and gives good feeling to a world waking up from health disaster.
The band is from Ghana, a country known for the origins of Highlife music. This group retraces the evolution of Highlife as it captivated dance floors and how it still does today with its newer forms. SOS was reimagined from the previous project Kyekyeku & Ghanalogue, that has been touring for the past five years, in Africa and Europe, and is recording its first album to be released by the second half of this year. The recordings are taking place at the amazing studios of Philophon Records in Kumasi, Ghana!
SOS performances offer tunes that range in style from Highlife, Afrobeat and Palmwine Folk into one “forget your worries” African party moment.
The seed and main pillar of this project is the band leader Kyekyeku whose music he defines as below:
"My music is integrally Ghanaian highlife with a tangent to Afrobeat. It’s a revival of the vintage sounds from the 1970s with punchy horns, rhythms and an overall pulsating vibe to have fun with, while engaging the self to be aware of our situation as humans."
Kyekyeku (Tche-Tche-Kou), a “wizard with the guitar” (CNN) is from a new generation of Ghanaian musicians who makes the distant past meet contemporary idioms of West Africa’s big musical heritage. His music draws from the Forest Folk Palmwine Blues and the cross rhythms of Ghana that gave birth to some of the unique styles to have come out of west Africa, particularly Highlife and Afrobeat.
Kyekyeku and his group Super Opong Stars create a unique and energetic sound, mixing the Highlife and Afrofunk of compatriots Ebo Taylor, Pat Thomas and Nana Ampadu; bursting into an exciting Afro-urban beat with lyrics reminiscent of village songs, protest songs, love songs and the ancient African spirituality.