Sonny Okosun was a musician from Nigeria

Nigeria

Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...

. His surname is sometimes spelled Okosuns and first name Sunny. He was one of the leading Nigerian musicians from the late 70's to mid 80's.

His first band, The Postmen, was formed in Enugu in 1965. In 1969 he joined Melody Maestros, a band led by Victor Uwaifo

Victor Uwaifo

Sir Victor Uwaifo is a Nigerian musician, writer, sculptor, and musical instrument inventor, born in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria in 1941. He is famous for his joromi music....

. From 1972 to 1974 he led a group known as Paperback Limited and then formed a new band, Ozziddi. From then on, he released several albums either with Ozziddi, or solo recordings.

His 1977 song, "Fire in Soweto", became a major international hit. He featured in the anti-apartheid album Sun City

Sun City (album)

Sun City was a 1985 album that contained several versions of the Steven Van Zandt-led Artists United Against Apartheid's "Sun City" protest song against apartheid in South Africa as well as other selections in the same vein from that project.-History:...

, and his song "Highlife" was in the soundtrack of 1986 film Something Wild. His mainstream success started to fade in the late 1980s, but he continued his career as a gospel

Gospel

A gospel is an account, often written, that describes the life of Jesus of Nazareth. In a more general sense the term "gospel" may refer to the good news message of the New Testament. It is primarily used in reference to the four canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John...

 musician under the name Evangelist Sonny Okosun.

He died aged 61 of colon cancer on May 24, 2008 at Howard University Hospital

Howard University

Howard University is a federally chartered, non-profit, private, coeducational, nonsectarian, historically black university located in Washington, D.C., United States...

, Washington DC. His musical styles ranged included reggae

Reggae

Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...

, highlife

Highlife

Highlife is a musical genre that originated in Ghana in the 1900s and spread to Sierra Leone, Nigeria and other West African countries by 1920...

, Afro-funk and gospel among others. He made music in Edo language

Edo language

Edo is a Volta–Niger language spoken primarily in Edo State, Nigeria. It was and remains the primary language of the Edo people of Igodomigodo. The Igodomigodo kingdom was renamed Edo by Oba Eweka, after which the Edos refer to themselves as Oviedo 'child of Edo'...

, Igbo language, Yoruba language

Yoruba language

Yorùbá is a Niger–Congo language spoken in West Africa by approximately 20 million speakers. The native tongue of the Yoruba people, it is spoken, among other languages, in Nigeria, Benin, and Togo and in communities in other parts of Africa, Europe and the Americas...

 and English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

.