Bringing Out the Sunny Side of King Sunny Ade

•Guitar Sells for N52.1m
Nseobong Okon-Ekong

In what many have dubbed the biggest of series of events to celebrate the 70th birthday of the iconic musician, Prince Sunday Adegeye, better known as, King Sunny Ade, Temple Management Company recently staged a mind blowing concert that left a huge impression on the mind of audience members for different reasons. Perhaps the most prominent highlight of the night was a new record in celebrity auctioning KSA’s vintage Fender Telecaster guitar, produced in 1950 was sold for N52.1million.

The bid for the guitar opened at N9million and it soon became one of the single most priced asset in the newly constructed hall as collectors’ outbid each other. In the audience were some of the most prominent Nigerians today such as Aliko Dangote, CEO, Dangote Group, Femi Otedola, CEO, Forte Oil, Adewumni Ogunsanya, Chairman of DSTV Nigeria and Herbert Wigwe, CEO, Access Bank Nigeria among others.

In less than five minutes, the guitar auction had already crossed the N20million mark and by the end of the 15 minutes allotted time for the exercise, an anonymous collector snapped up the item for a whopping N52.1million.

Produced in 1950, the fine strings of the Telecaster have been caressed by the fingers of the music legend on several stages across different continents. It received the artistic signature touch of celebrity Nigerian visual artist, Victor Ehikhamenor who etched his exquisite murals on the iconic piece of music.

The guitar is the second that King Sunny Ade will be parting with after he recently donated another Fender Telecaster with shoes and a suit to the Hard Rock Cafe Music Memorabilia Collection at a ceremony in Lagos.
Promoted by the wave making event company, Temple Management Company, the event tagged ‘Sunny On Sunday’ was held at the Temple/Balmoral Hall, Federal Palace Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Different shades of incandescent lights combined to transform the newly constructed Temple Balmoral Marquee into a theatre of resplendence. Each of performing act mounted the stage with their band.
Performing to a packed hall, the event flow was masterfully marshalled by comedian, Tee A and interspersed with generous doses of humour by the funny duo of FunkeAkindele and Lolo Omotunde.

To whet the appetite of the audience, the event opened with performances by fast-rising acts including Tyson Noir, Jeff, Moyeen and Niniola. Darey, Iyanya and Omawumi, took the momentum several notches higher with medleys of their popular tunes including ‘Pray For Me’, ‘Kukere’ and ‘Bottom Belle’ medley, respectively.
King Sunny Ade pulled a surprise on OnyekaOnwenu as he joined her on stage to melt hearts with a seamless rendition of ‘Wait For Me’.

The celebrant, King Sunny Ade nodded and danced along as his evergreen tunes were given a remake by Darey, Tiwa Savage and Sir Shina Peters (SPP).
Congolese sensation, Awilo Longomba with his exotic dancers sent the audience into revelry with his monster hit songs such as ‘Gate Le Coin’, ‘Coupe Bibamba’ and ‘Karolina’.

Although he is 70 and aging gracefully, King Sunny Ade did not miss the chance to dazzle the audience with his famous footwork. When challenged to a dance duel by the Congolese sensation, Papa Youth as he is fondly called responded with equal gusto and verve sending the audience into frenzy.

Bringing the gig to a climax, King Sunny Ade and his African Beats Band teased the audience with a medley of popular evergreen songs from his collection including ‘Easy Motion Tourist’, ‘Merciful God’ and ‘Aye N’reti’ among others. Toyosi Adegeye, the 13 year-old daughter of the veteran musician capped the evening with a medley of Yoruba gospel songs.