{ "slug": "highlife", "name": "Highlife", "aliases": [ "high life", "guitar band highlife", "dance band highlife", "palm-wine music" ], "description": "West Africa's first great popular music: Akan rhythms and palm-wine guitar meeting brass-band and swing arrangements in coastal Ghana, recorded from 1928 and named for the clubs ordinary people were not admitted to.", "origin": { "place": "Ghana and coastal West Africa", "year": 1928 }, "lineage": [], "bpm": { "min": 100, "max": 140 }, "updated": "2026-08-30", "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/highlife/", "trackCount": 7, "curatedBy": [], "playlists": {}, "tracks": [ { "rank": 1, "trackKey": "kwame-asare--yaa-amponsah", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/kwame-asare--yaa-amponsah/", "title": "Yaa Amponsah", "artist": "Kwame Asare", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/kwame-asare/", "year": 1928, "label": "Zonophone", "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "Recorded in London with the Kumasi Trio, and the first Ghanaian highlife on record. Its finger-picked guitar figure became a rhythm other musicians simply refer to by name.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Kwame%20Asare%20Yaa%20Amponsah", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=F09XX2CgVc4", "exact": true } } }, { "rank": 2, "trackKey": "e-t-mensah-and-the-tempos--all-for-you", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/e-t-mensah-and-the-tempos--all-for-you/", "title": "All For You", "artist": "E.T. Mensah & The Tempos", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/e-t-mensah-and-the-tempos/", "year": 1952, "label": "Decca", "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "Mensah put a dance band behind highlife and took it across West Africa. Louis Armstrong sat in with the Tempos in Accra, which tells you how good the horn section was.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/E.T.%20Mensah%20%26%20The%20Tempos%20All%20For%20You", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=9rK3DIN3EuU", "exact": true } } }, { "rank": 3, "trackKey": "prince-nico-mbarga--sweet-mother", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/prince-nico-mbarga--sweet-mother/", "title": "Sweet Mother", "artist": "Prince Nico Mbarga", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/prince-nico-mbarga/", "year": 1976, "label": "Rogers All Stars", "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "Reckoned to be the best-selling African single ever made. A pidgin-English song about a mother's love over a guitar line of total sweetness, and utterly unembarrassed by any of it.", "alsoOn": [ { "kind": "curator", "slug": "nineteen-seventy-six", "name": "1976", "url": "https://waxonia.com/theme/nineteen-seventy-six/" }, { "kind": "curator", "slug": "sung-to-someone", "name": "Sung to Someone", "url": "https://waxonia.com/theme/sung-to-someone/" } ], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Prince%20Nico%20Mbarga%20Sweet%20Mother", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=CWmecBppkOQ", "exact": true } } }, { "rank": 4, "trackKey": "nana-ampadu-and-the-african-brothers-band--ebi-te-yie", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/nana-ampadu-and-the-african-brothers-band--ebi-te-yie/", "title": "Ebi Te Yie", "artist": "Nana Ampadu & The African Brothers Band", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/nana-ampadu-and-the-african-brothers-band/", "year": 1967, "label": null, "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "An animal fable about who gets the comfortable seat, read as criticism of the military government and pulled off the radio. Highlife's most elegant piece of political smuggling.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Nana%20Ampadu%20%26%20The%20African%20Brothers%20Band%20Ebi%20Te%20Yie", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=creb9dsHwsQ", "exact": true } } }, { "rank": 5, "trackKey": "sir-victor-uwaifo--joromi", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/sir-victor-uwaifo--joromi/", "title": "Joromi", "artist": "Sir Victor Uwaifo", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/sir-victor-uwaifo/", "year": 1965, "label": null, "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "A Benin folk hero, a guitar figure that circles rather than resolves, and Nigeria's first gold record. Uwaifo built his own guitars, which sounds about right.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Sir%20Victor%20Uwaifo%20Joromi", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=rbe7UefYCN8", "exact": true } } }, { "rank": 6, "trackKey": "gyedu-blay-ambolley--simigwa-do", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/gyedu-blay-ambolley--simigwa-do/", "title": "Simigwa Do", "artist": "Gyedu-Blay Ambolley", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/gyedu-blay-ambolley/", "year": 1975, "label": null, "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "Highlife with the funk turned all the way up and a rapped Fante vocal years before anyone in New York had a word for that. Genuinely ahead of itself.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Gyedu-Blay%20Ambolley%20Simigwa%20Do", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=OgFdE6iw-Vw", "exact": true } } }, { "rank": 7, "trackKey": "osibisa--sunshine-day", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/osibisa--sunshine-day/", "title": "Sunshine Day", "artist": "Osibisa", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/osibisa/", "year": 1976, "label": "Bronze", "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "Ghanaian and Caribbean musicians in London, making highlife that charted in Britain without diluting the percussion. The diaspora version, and a very good one.", "alsoOn": [ { "kind": "curator", "slug": "nineteen-seventy-six", "name": "1976", "url": "https://waxonia.com/theme/nineteen-seventy-six/" } ], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Osibisa%20Sunshine%20Day", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=MeH3OdgGHso", "exact": true } } } ] }