KSA, Omawumi, Adewale Ayuba celebrate World Music Day with great performances

2017's World Music day banged in Lagos, and we were right there to enjoy it.

In 1982, Jack Lang and his staff at the Ministry of Culture, France dreamed up an idea for a new kind of musical holiday. They imagined a day where free, live music would be everywhere: street corners and parks, rooftops and gardens, storefronts and mountaintops.

And unlike a typical festival, anyone and everyone would be invited to join play music or host performances. The event would take place on the summer solstice, June 21, and would be called Fete De La Musique. (In French, the name means both “festival of music” and “make music!”)

Amazingly enough, this dream has come true. The Fete has turned into a true national holiday on the summer solstice and musicians take over. Almost 8% of the country (5 million people) have played an instrument or sung in public for the Fete de la Musique.

The festival has become an international phenomenon, celebrated on the same day in more than 120 countries, including Germany, Italy, Greece, Russia, Lebanon, Ivory Coast, Australia, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Canada. and Japan.

In the United States, Make Music is celebrated in over 40 states. Makemusicday.org spearheads the events, sponsored by the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) Foundation.

In Africa, over 50 cities celebrate Make Music including Cote d’ivoire: Abijan, Benin: Cotonou, Burkina Faso: Ouagadougou and Togo: Lome.

the 2017 edition of Make Music Day was special in Lagos.

There were numerous fun-filled concerts in Ikeja, Yaba, Lekki, Ogudu GRA, FESTAC, Victoria Island, Surulere, Ikoyi, and Lagos Island.

Pulse was live at the Grand Finale, which held at The Balmoral, Federal Palace Hotel, Victoria nIsland, where we got to witness breathtaking live performances by a fine blend of Nigeria's music maestros.

There were great performances by Jodie, King Sunny Ade, Omawumi, Adewale Ayuba, Daddy Showkey, Morayo, Folabi Noel, Bez, Soud Sultan and more. It was an unplugged experience designed to capture all different aspects of the music.