Charles Kwadwo Fosu got the name Daddy Lumba as a schoolboy in the Ashanti Region, from a song he wrote called "Lumba Lumba". By the time he died in Accra on 26 July 2025, aged 60, the name meant highlife to three generations of Ghanaians.
From Nsuta to Germany
He was born on 29 September 1964 in Nsuta and led the choir at Juaben Senior High School before moving to Germany. There he met Nana Acheampong, and as the Lumba Brothers they released Yee Ye Aka Akwantuom in 1989. The title track became a hit at home and helped make burger highlife, the sound Ghanaians were recording in Germany, part of Ghana's mainstream.
The solo years
His first solo album, Obi Ate Meso Buo, arrived in 1990 with "Theresa" on it. For the next twenty years he released at least one album a year from the Rheinklang studio in Düsseldorf, 27 in all, on his own Lumba Productions label. "Aben Wo Ha" won him Most Popular Song at the Ghana Music Awards, and in 2000 he was Artiste of the Year. He also produced other singers, Ofori Amponsah among them.
His songs were sung mostly in Twi, about love, marriage, money, poverty, grief and God. They are still played at weddings, parties and funerals across Ghana and the diaspora, and in 2025 King Charles III put "Mpempem Do Me" on his Commonwealth Day playlist.
Late honours and a sudden death
He won the Icon/Legend award at the 2018 EMY Africa Awards and received the Grand Medal at the National Honours on 30 December 2024. He was planning his first tour of North America in more than 20 years, and working on new music with King Promise, when he died suddenly at The Bank Hospital in Cantonments. The tour was cancelled the same day.
His death was followed by a public fight within his family. In November 2025 the High Court in Kumasi recognised both Akosua Serwaa Fosuh and Priscilla Ofori, known as Odo Broni, as his surviving wives.
What he left
More than 200 recorded songs, a catalogue that moved from cassettes to streaming without losing listeners, and a generation of singers, KiDi and Sarkodie among them, who name him as an influence. Read his full profile for the complete story.
