In the eight years from March 2018 to February 2026, Ghanaian highlife lost most of the men who built it. Some had been off the stage for years. Others, like Daddy Lumba, were still recording and planning tours when they died.
Between them they cover almost the whole history of the genre: the guitar-band highlife of the 1960s, the big dance bands of the 1970s, the burger highlife that Ghanaians made in Germany in the 1980s, and the Twi love songs that filled radio in the 1990s and 2000s. Here they are in the order we lost them.
The highlife legends Ghana has lost since 2018
C. K. Mann
Died 20 March 2018, Takoradi. The Cape Coast guitarist took osode, the music of Fante fishing towns, and gave it electric guitars and a dance band. "Edina Benya" (1969) made his name, and he was still recording in 2013, when he released Wope Nye Ho. Read full profile →
Jewel Ackah
Died 27 April 2018, Tema. The "Prince of Highlife" from Axim sang with C. K. Mann's Carousel Seven and with Sweet Talks, recorded more than 27 albums and wrote "Arise Arise" for the NDC. Jerry Rawlings came to his tribute concert in Tema. Read full profile →
Kofi B
Died 2 February 2020, Cape Coast. The singer of "Mmobrowa" and "Koforidua Flowers" collapsed from a heart attack before a show in Cape Coast. He had grown up on Amakye Dede and Kojo Antwi, and carried their style into the 2000s. Read full profile →
Nana Tuffour
Died 15 June 2020. Known to fans as "9-9-2-4", the Kumasi singer began as a pianist, played keyboards for King Sunny Adé in Nigeria and left 15 albums, among them the songs "Aketekyiwa" and "Abeiku". He died of COVID-19 at 66. Read full profile →
Nana Kwame Ampadu
Died 28 September 2021, Accra. The founder of the African Brothers Band wrote more than 800 songs. "Ebi Te Yie" (1967), a fable about who gets a seat at the table, vanished from the radio under military rule. The Arts Council called him Odwontofoohene, chief of singers. Read full profile →
A. B. Crentsil
Died 13 July 2022. The Prestea-born singer trained as an electrician before co-leading Sweet Talks, the house band at the Talk of the Town Hotel in Tema. "Devil" and "Moses" kept him in the headlines, and he later led the Ahenfo Band. Read full profile →
Akwaboah Snr.
Died 16 May 2023, Kumasi. A keyboardist, guitarist and producer from Mampong Beposo, he played alongside Rex Omar and C. K. Mann, sang "Awerɛkyekyerɛ" and "Hini Me", and raised a son, Akwaboah Jnr, who became a star songwriter. Read full profile →
George Darko
Died 20 March 2024, Akuapem-Mampong. "Ako Te Brofo" (1983), recorded with his Bus Stop band in Germany, is the song that defined burger highlife. Back home he became Tufuhene of Akropong-Akuapem, and the Ghana Music Awards gave him a lifetime award in 2020. Read full profile →
Teddy Osei
Died 14 January 2025, aged 89. The Kumasi saxophonist founded Osibisa in London in 1969 and took Ghanaian rhythms into rock, jazz and funk. "Sunshine Day" and "Dance the Body Music" were UK hits in the 1970s. Read full profile →
Daddy Lumba
Died 26 July 2025, Accra. The biggest name on this list. Charles Kwadwo Fosu started in Germany with Nana Acheampong in the Lumba Brothers, then released 27 solo albums and more than 200 songs. A family dispute over his funeral and his two widows reached the High Court. Read full profile →
Ebo Taylor
Died 7 February 2026, aged 90. The Cape Coast guitarist played with Fela Kuti in London in the early 1960s, produced for Pat Thomas and C. K. Mann at Essiebons, and found a new audience late in life when hip-hop producers began sampling his records. Read full profile →
Who carries it on
Highlife did not die with them. Kojo Antwi, Amakye Dede and Rex Omar are still performing, and younger singers such as KiDi and King Promise name Daddy Lumba as a major influence.
