NIGERIA: Veteran Nigerian musician Fatai Rolling Dollar has died after a career that spanned more than 64 years. Fatai, who sang and played the guitar, was one of the pioneers of popular highlife music

Record ID: 236108

  • Title: NIGERIA: Veteran Nigerian musician Fatai Rolling Dollar has died after a career that spanned more than 64 years. Fatai, who sang and played the guitar, was one of the pioneers of popular highlife music
  • Date: 14th June 2013
  • Summary: SCREEN OF LAPTOP SHOWING VARIOUS PHOTOGRAPHS OF ROLLING DOLLAR
  • Embargoed: 29th June 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Nigeria
  • Country: Nigeria
  • Topics: Obituaries
  • Reuters ID: LVABJ38V8NVHSJSJ5VSIWJWO60B6
  • Story Text: Veteran Nigerian musician, Pa Fatai Olayiwola Olagunju, popularly known as Fatai Rolling Dollar, died in a Lagos hospital on Wednesday (June 12). The exact cause of death is still unknown.
    Rolling Dollar was one of Nigeria's oldest performing musicians.
    He was a pioneer of "juju music" - a sound that was created from the sound of a tambourine.
    Rolling stone was also popular for pioneering highlife music - a fusion of West African beats and jazz, and popularizing it in the 60's and 70's.
    All over Nigeria, fans mourned the loss of their music hero who they had fallen in love with for his resilient spirit and energetic performances on stage, despite his age, estimated at 85 or 86.

    "It was so painful because those kind of people you don't need to lose them," said Friday Jeffery, a resident in Lagos.
    Rolling Dollar's music influenced many other Nigerian artists, even afrobeat legend Fela Kuti.
    Ade Bantu, a young Nigerian afrobeat artist and friend to the late "Dollar", as he is called in short, describes the musician whose as "a fighter - always smiling even when he was frail."
    Rolling Dollar had just returned from a tour of the United States and Bantu says the two had planned to tour together in Germany in July.

    "I was totally shocked because Dollar was a person who never gave you the impression that he was going to die anytime soon, he was so full of life, Dollar just wasn't one of those old people that you see all broken, all frail, Dollar was always active and you felt like he had kind of played a trick or two on death," said Ade Bantu.
    Rolling Dollar features in a documentary film titles "Elder's Corner", which tells the story of the musical journey and history of Nigeria, through the lives and careers of the country's music legends.

    "The evolution of music in Nigeria is also emboldened in Rolling Dollars' history in his story so it's a monumental loss for music not only for Nigeria, for Africa but for music and that is the tragedy in itself but then again his works will always make him live on for generations to come because he was an incredible musician," said Ade Bantu.
    One of Rolling Dollar's best known songs is the classic 'Won Kere Si Number Wa' which in local Yoruba language means, "They Cannot Catch Us" - a criticism of younger generations.
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