Apala music, amongst the powerful music genres loved by all in Yoruba land today, was not all rosy from the get-go of its creation by the Apala king, Haruna Ishola Bello, following its struggles for acceptance and connection among the Yorubas and Nigeria as a whole.

Born in 1919 in Igbaire, Oke-Sopin, Ijebu-Igbo, in present-day Ogun State, into a musical lineage, Haruna Ishola was introduced to music at an early age by his father, who was also a musician and herbalist. However, before taking music as a career, Ishola started off as a goldsmith and blacksmith and fell in love with musical arts and indigenous knowledge during the metal activities.

His acquired blacksmith skills helped him forge some of his instruments like Agogo and Agidigbo; through this, he was able to control the precise sound and tone of the metal, making sure it met the standards of the traditional Apala rhythm.

Prior to christening the genre Apala in 1947, the music style, which was known by regional names like Oshugbo or Ewele, was peculiar with traditional musical instruments like Agidigbo, Sekere, Agogo, Sakara, Akuba, and other musical elements to underscore its cultural roots.

At age 28, Haruna Ishola, who had grown his love for the Ewele genre, relocated to Osogbo to gather some boys from his local area to form his first-ever music group named Haruna Ishola and His Apala Group. After the establishment of his group in 1948, Haruna Ishola and his newly formed group released a debut album, Orimolusi Adeboye, under the British label His Master’s Voice (HMV). The record, which celebrated the coronation of the Oba of Ijebu-Igbo, was initially a market failure.

As opposed to his compeers in Juju and Highlife music who, at a time, adopted guitars, accordion, brass, and other Western instruments in their genres, Ishola refused the usage of those instruments in his Apala music in order to maintain the cultural richness of the music genre. Without being bothered about how society accepted Highlife music in the 1950s, Ishola doubled down on his traditionalist approach and, by 1955, he was recognized as the leader of a genre that outrightly rejected the idea of adding a Western instrument.

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After experiencing a difficult start to his musical career, his relentlessness and commitment earned him a reputation as the most in-demand entertainer for parties among the wealthy Nigerian elite. In 1955, following the demise of Oba Adegboye in an air accident, a re-recorded version of his 1948 disappointing album was released and set his path to the spotlight.

In 1955, Ishola, who adopted and stuck to a strong traditionalist approach, citing both Yoruba proverbs and Koranic scripture in his songs, became the most popular artist in the genre and one of the most respected praise singers in Nigeria. Before the end of the 1950s, he introduced Sekere into his music and recorded a song in 1960 for Decca Records titled Punctuality is the Soul of Business. In 1962, he recorded his first LP of two sides with five songs on each side.

One of the peculiar styles about his performance was him sitting among his two talking drummers, lamellaphone, shakers, agogo bells, akuba, claves, and a chorus of singers.

In 1969, Ishola, in partnership with I.K. Dairo, started STAR Records Ltd., the first African record label owned by its founders. In 1971, he released his largest selling album to date, Oroki Social Club, on Decca Records, which sold over five million copies.

Baba Ngani Agba, as people also called him, because of his contributions to Nigeria’s cultural, social, and economic awareness, became one of the first Nigerian musicians to tour abroad, performing in Benin, the United Kingdom, Sweden, France, West Germany, and Italy, and was also conferred a Member of the Order of the Niger (M.O.N.) in 1981 by the then President of Nigeria, Shehu Shagari. He was also decorated by the Queen of England during his global tours to countries like the UK, France, and Sweden.

Ishola’s contributions in society as a social commentator and chronicler of historical events did not go unnoticed, with many high-profile figures like Obafemi Awolowo and Sikiru Adetona commissioning him to record albums for their major life events.

His death on November 9, 1983, at age 64, served as a significant loss in the Nigeria music scene and was also detrimental to the popularity of the Apala genre, coupled with the earlier death of his rival, Ayinla Omowura, in 1980; Apala was eventually overshadowed by the rise of Fuji music.

Alhaji Haruna Ishola released not less than 100 albums such as Oroki Social Club (1971), Late Oba Adeboye (1955), Punctuality is the Soul of Business (1960), Ina Ran, Abanije Koni Gbayi, On My Way To London, and Opon Apala Ti Sun, among other lengthy albums designed to be played at parties and social gatherings where his hypnotic rhythms could keep people dancing for hours.

Yet decades later, Haruna Ishola’s spirit endures. Through discipline, cultural pride, and artistic conviction, he not only shaped Apala music but preserved a vital strand of Yoruba identity within Nigeria’s evolving musical landscape.