Adekunle Gold

Nigerian highlife performer, composer, and visual artist Adekunle Gold has collected multiple awards. Widely recognized throughout his native Nigeria, he describes his sound as urban highlife, shaped by deliberate fusions of modern pop, electronica, folk, and R&B. His first solo release, the 2014 single “Sade,” together with a cover of One Direction’s “Story of My Life,” sparked heavy rotation on Lagos radio. After Simi mixed the track, it earned the Headies award for Best Alternative Song the following year. Having designed the logo for Olamide’s YBNL Nation imprint, Gold joined the roster and quickly issued two further Simi-mixed singles, “Orente” and “Pick Up,” both of which charted. His 2017 debut album Gold reached number seven on the World Albums Chart, while the 2018 follow-up About 30 landed inside the Top Ten. Subsequent projects Catch Me If You Can (2022) and Tequila Ever After (2023), issued via Def Jam, marked his continued shift toward a broader Afropop palette.

Born Omoba Adekunle Kosoko into Lagos State’s royal family, Gold holds the title of prince and is the nephew of internationally celebrated Nollywood actor Prince Jide Kosoko. Although his Muslim parents raised four children, they granted each complete religious freedom. As the sole son, Gold began singing in a local church’s junior choir, wrote his first song at fifteen, and later joined the short-lived boy band the Bridge, which released a pair of singles. He adopted his stage name after a moment of inspiration during a pastor’s sermon. At Lagos State Polytechnic he studied graphic arts, painting, and sculpture in the arts and design department, completing his degree before resuming a solo music career.

In 2014 the Simi-mixed “Sade” ignited airplay first in Lagos, then nationwide and across West Africa, becoming a countrywide hit. Long acquainted with YBNL Nation founder and singer Olamide (Adedeji) through logo design work, Gold secured a contract that yielded the immediate follow-ups “Orente” and “Pick Up.” He received a City People’s Entertainment Awards nomination for Most Promising Artist of the Year, claimed Alternative Song of the Year at the Headies for “Sade,” and was named Revelation of the Year at AFRIMA. Near the close of 2016 the album Gold appeared in Nigeria, followed by its global release in early 2017 alongside four new singles—“Work,” “Only Girl,” “Call on Me,” and “Money.” State radio across Africa and stations in Germany, Norway, the Netherlands, Spain, and England embraced the project, which later reached U.S. public, college, and streaming outlets and peaked at number seven on the World Music Albums chart. Beyond the initial singles, the set contained the hits “No Forget (feat. Simi)” and “Work.”

Gold joined SESS and Reminisce on the 2018 hit “Original Gangster” and released the self-written single “IRE,” later remixed and reissued by DJs Pheelz and El Mukuka. His sophomore album About 30 arrived to wide international attention, featuring Dya on “Down with You,” Seun Kuti on “Mr. Foolish,” and Flavour N’bania on “Yoyo,” and climbed to number nine on the World Music Albums chart. He toured domestically and continent-wide, issuing further charting singles through 2019 such as “Kelegbe Megbe,” “Before You Wake Up,” “Adiza,” and “Promise.” That same period he married longtime collaborator Simi. Early 2020 brought the streaming hit “Jore” featuring Kizz Daniel, followed by the third album Afro Pop, Vol. 1. The fourth album Catch Me If You Can appeared in 2022 with guest contributions from Ty Dolla $ign, Fatoumata Diawara, Stefflon Don, and DaVido.

After signing a distribution agreement between his own label and Def Jam, Gold delivered the July 2023 long-player Tequila Ever After, fusing South African amapiano, soul, and R&B with intricate Nigerian and American rhythmic elements. An acoustic rendition of the album track “Look What You Made Me Do?” surfaced as a Simi duet in early February 2024, and two weeks later he released the rhythmic single “The Life I Chose.”