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Music of Togo

The music of Togo has produced a number of internationally known popular entertainers including Bella Bellow, Akofah Akussah, Afia Mala, Itadi Bonney, Wellborn, King Mensah and Jimi Hope.

National music[edit]

The Togolese national anthem is Salut à toi, pays de nos aïeux (Land of our forefathers), written by Alex Casimir-Dosseh. From 1979 to 1992 it was replaced by an anthem composed by the party of the Rally of the Togolese People. French is the official and commercial language of Togo.

Popular music[edit]

Internationally known performer King Mensah, a former performer at the Ki-Yi M'Bock Theatre in Abidjan, toured Europe and Japan before opening his own show in French Guiana and then moving to Paris and forming a band called Favaneva.[5] Peter Solo The man of Vodoo Game Music from Togo The idea of integrating these haunting lines, sung in honor of the Divinities, to an energetic 1970s Afro-funk was an obvious extension in Peter's mind of the analogy he found between this voodoo tradition and trance inducers such as Blues, Funk, as well as the Rhythm'n Blues of James Brown, Otis Redding and Wilson Picket.Peter heard this new sound coming through him and named it Vodoo Game.


Bella Bellow is Togo's best-known musician, and is often compared with South Africa's Miriam Makeba.[6] Her career began after representing her country in 1966 at the Dakar Arts Festival.[5] She began a career singing love-oriented ballads in 1969, when she worked with Togolese-French producer Gérard Akueson and soon appeared on French national radio and then the prestigious Olympia Music Hall.[5] She toured across much of the world before dying in a car accident in 1973, just after recording the hit collaboration with Manu Dibango "Sango Jesus Christo".[5] In Bellow's wake came a wave of female singers, including Mabah, Afia Mala, Fifi Rafiatou and Ita Jourias.[5] Other musicians include Jimi Hope. Hope is known for politically incisive lyrics and an innovative rock-based style.[5]


Hip hop is on the rise, and 2003 saw the first Togo hip hop awards ceremony.[6]


Folk metal scene of Togo, counts one band under the name "Arka'n Asrafokor[7]"

Sub-Saharan African music traditions

Rhythm in Sub-Saharan Africa

West African music

Bensignor, François and Eric Audra. "Afro-Funksters". 2000. In Broughton, Simon and Ellingham, Mark with McConnachie, James and Duane, Orla (Ed.), World Music, Vol. 1: Africa, Europe and the Middle East, pp 432–436. Rough Guides Ltd, . ISBN 1-85828-636-0

Penguin Books

. World Music Central. Archived from the original on September 1, 2005. Retrieved September 7, 2005.

"International Dance Glossary"

. OxFam's Cool Planet. Archived from the original on September 9, 2005. Retrieved September 7, 2005.

"Virtual journey through Togo, music + dance"

. OxFam's Cool Planet. Archived from the original on November 19, 2005. Retrieved September 7, 2005.

"Virtual journey through Togo, Togolese drumming"

(in French) Musée d'ethnographie de Genève. Accessed November 25, 2010.

Audio clips: Traditional music of Togo.

French National Library. Accessed November 25, 2010.

Audio clips - traditional music of Togo.