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HALIMAT AYINLA OMOWURA Day 2023
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As City People Teams Up To Celebrate The APALA Icon
Late Apala icon, Alhaji Ayinla Omowura has a beautiful daughter called Halima. She is set to celebrate her dad. Come Thursday 31st August 2023 the memory of late Ayinla Omowura will come alive in Lagos, when his daughter, Queen Halimat Omowura holds Ayinla Omowura Day 2023 in Lagos.
It is a date set out to remember the late Apala legend. The gate pass of the day is the Aso-Ebi Ankara.
Already a lot of musicians will be performing live at the event which promises to be exciting. Two of them are Alhaji Sefiu Alao and Alhaji Wasiu Alabi Pasuma. Over 30 other artistes will be performing.
Waidi Ayinla Yusuf Gbogbolowo better known as Ayinla Omowura (1933 – 6 May 1980) was an Apala musician born in Itoko area of Abeokuta in 1933.
He was the son of Yusuff Gbogbolowo, a blacksmith and Wuramotu Morenike. He did not have formal education. Hence he started out working at his father’s smithy but left and went on to several jobs as a driver, butcher, carpenter and bus park boy. He was however discovered by Adewole Alao Oniluola, who later became his lead drummer and started an apprenticeship in Olalomi, an Apala variant.
He was known for always feuding with other musicians including his superiors such as Haruna Ishola, whom he later acknowledged to be his superior. He also feuded with Ayinde Barrister, Fatai Olowonyo, Yesufu Olatunji and Dauda Epo Akara. That was the way the game was played.
These feuds colored his music throughout. He was noted to have a quick temper and to engage in physical altercations.
Despite being unlettered, Omowura was enlightened about current events and had a command of puns, proverbs, innuendos, and metaphors. He was a social commentator and critic as well as a moral instructor. He often served as a mouthpiece for passing on government policies to the masses and was also a messenger of the masses back to the government. In his 1976 album, Owo Udoji, he hailed the government for salary increment but however demanded for same increment in the private sector. In Orin Owo Ile Eko, he explained the Lagos rent edict to his listeners and also praised the Mobolaji Johnson-led Lagos State government for the masses-oriented programme. He influenced the response of the people to the policy and also explained the National Census of 1973 in his album National Census. In the 1973 album, Challenge Cup ’73 he explained the change in driving from the left to the right hand side and the change of the Nigerian Currency from the colonial Pound Sterling to the Naira and Kobo during the General Yakubu Gowon-led military government. Asides current affairs, he used his albums to extol the importance of sporting activities. His music also preached positive change in the society and portrayed both mourning and celebration. He was also a critic of women who bleached their skin and promiscuous women.
He had many aliases and earned the moniker, Hadji Costly because of his flamboyant dressing in agbadas made of high quality Swiss lace and gold jewellery. His other aliases include Egunmogaji, Anigilaje and Alujannu Elere which demonstrated his status as the enfant terrible in music of the time.
He was a Muslim by birth, he practiced the religion and performed the Hajj in 1975. He however also engaged in traditional religion practices. He was married to Afusatu of the Ile Eleni clan and Tawakalitu Owonikoko.
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