Personality of The Week : Victor Olaiya

Victor Olaiya

Birthnames: Victor Abimbola Olaiya

Origin: Ekiti State

Olaiya was born on 31 December 1930, in Calabar, Cross River State, the 20th child of a family of 24. Dr Victor Olaiya, is a Nigerian trumpeter who plays in the highlife style.

Though extremely famous in Nigeria during the 1950s and early 1960s, Olaiya received little recognition outside his native country.Olaiya's music bridges between Ghanaian highlife and what would become Afrobeat.

His musical style was influenced by James Brown, with horn parts harmonized in Brown's style, as opposed to the mostly unison lines of Afrobeat.

In 1954 Olaiya formed his own band, the Cool Cats, playing popular highlife music. His band was chosen to play at the state ball when Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom visited Nigeria in 1956, and later to play at the state balls when Nigeria became independent in 1960 and when Nigeria became a republic in 1963.

In July 2013, Victor Olaiya released a music video remix of Baby Jowo(Baby Mi Da)with 2face idibia and was received with much acclaim.