Highlife

Ghana's century-old dance band sound

Highlife is a West African dance music that took shape in Ghana in the early twentieth century, joining Akan melodic and rhythmic traditions to Western dance-band instruments. It became one of the foundational popular musics of the region and shaped much of what followed.

Origin & history

Highlife developed in coastal Ghana in the early 1900s, as brass-band and dance-band instrumentation met local Akan musical traditions.

It spread to Nigeria and across West Africa through the mid-century, and its guitar styles and horn arrangements run underneath a great deal of later West African popular music, Afrobeats included.

Notable artists

E.T. Mensah

Ghanaian bandleader often called the king of highlife, central to its dance-band era.

Where it lives

GhanaExplore the Ghana hub →

NigeriaExplore the Nigeria hub →

Where these artists come from

69 Highlife artists are on TimTim.Live, and 69 of them have a public hometown. Here is where they come from.

Countries

Cities and places

Some of the artists

Questions & Answers

What is highlife?+

Highlife is a West African dance music that began in Ghana in the early twentieth century, combining Akan musical traditions with Western dance-band instruments.

Where did highlife originate?+

In coastal Ghana, spreading from there to Nigeria and across West Africa.

How old is highlife?+

It dates to the early 1900s, which makes it one of the oldest continuously played popular music genres in West Africa.