Highlife musician Morocco Maduka is dead

Morocco Maduka

Veteran highlife musician Chukwuemeka Maduka, better known as Morocco Maduka, is dead.

He was 76 years old.

His death on Thursday was announced by the Anambra State chapter of the Performing Musicians Employers’ Association of Nigeria (PMAN).

Regarded in some quarters as the oldest performing Igbo musician alive, Maduka was an exponent of a genre known as Ekpili music.

His first album titled Aya Nigeria (Nigerian War) was released in 1971.

He released his second in 1974 under Tabansi Records.

A celebration of his 60th anniversary as a professional musician scheduled to hold in Anambra on March 6 and 7 was postponed because of the COVID-19 outbreak.

It was rescheduled for October 23 and 24, but the celebration did not eventually hold.

Maduka released about 120 albums before his death.

He had planned to retire from music at 80.