Born into a Yoruba royal family, Segun Adewale left school to become a professional guitarist. He is best known for creating yopo, an offshoot of the juju music popular in Nigeria in the 1970s. The term is short for Yoruban pop, and infuses funk, highlife, and reggae into the juju sound.

Adewale's first professional music job came through I.K. Dairo's band, where he learned compositional skills. A year later, he joined Chief S.L. Atolagbe's band, Holy Rainbow, before forming his own band, the Superstars in 1973. The band broke up after only a year, and Adewale started singing for Prince Adekunle's Western Brothers Band, one of the top juju bands, where he met his future band-mate Sir Shina Peters, who was in a similar position. Adewale remained in this band for six years, before he and Peters set out to create Shina Adewale and Superstars International with six other members from the Western Brothers Band.

This second incarnation of the Superstars lasted three years and released seven LPs. Despite growing success and popularity, especially on the 1988 release, Play for Me, the two front-men of the band found themselves unable to work together for an extended period of time, and the band broke up in 1980.

Adewale continued to record albums in his own yopo style, which eliminated the slow introductory passage common to many juju songs. He also formed his own record label, Superstars International, through which he released his albums in Nigeria and the United Kingdom. His last album, Here I Am (Emi Re) in America was released in 1996.

Contributed by: Jake Gold