Onyeka Onwenu dead at 72: Music icon passes away after performing at a private party in Lagos

Considered one of Nigeria’s most loved stars, Onyeka Onwenu is reported to have died from a heart attack. Bola Tinubu, the President of Nigeria paid tribute to her and said: ““She lives on in her immortal masterpiece.”

Photographer Keliex Ofoedu, who is the official photographer to Abia state governor Alex Otti, had taken photographs of Onyeka Onwenu’s performance at the private birthday party and commented that “Who knew she’d be gone after I took these images of her last night.”

In an interview with Premium Times Nigeria in 2021, Onyeka Onwenu wrote an opinion piece about how she would like to be buried, she wrote it after the burial of famous businessman Obi Cubana’s mother, Uche Iyiegbu. Onyeka Onwenu said: “ I told a friend just days before the most outrageous burial of Innyom Ezinne Uche Iyiegbu in Oba, Anambra State, in July that I had given my family instructions on how to bury me when my time comes.”

Onyeka Onwenu also said: “Do it quickly, quietly and privately. Celebrate me with prayers, lunch or dinner afterwards. Share some jokes about me and laugh. Mourn, yes, but not excessively. Make merriment, and then go about your business. If my friends want to celebrate me, they should do so while I am alive, so that I can enjoy it with them, not when I am gone and have no idea about this. That is me, Onyeka Onwenu.”

Onyeka Onwenu, who was known as the ‘Elegant Stallion.’ is best known for her disco anthem One Love in 1986, Onyeka was also an actress who starred in the 1999 movie, Conspiracy, her hit You and it was repurposed for the film. 

Onyeka Onwenu was born in Obosi, Anambra in 1952, her mother Hope Onwenu was a singer and her father Dickson Onwenu was a politician in pre-independence Nigeria. Onyeka attended both Wellesley College in Massachusetts in the US and the New School in New York.

When Onyeka returned to Nigeria, she worked at the state-run Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) and started her music career. The Guardian reported that “A contemporary of the jùjú maestro King Sunny Adé, they recorded the popular 1989 duet Choices, about consent and birth control,a stunningly bold move in a country that remains largely conservative decades later.”

As well as acting in Nigerian films, Onyeka was also involved in politics and used to be a member of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). According to the BBC, she “twice stood unsuccessfully for a local government seat. During last year’s general election, she endorsed the rival Labour Party, which came third. The party’s Lagos state chapter said it was ‘deeply saddened by the ‘iconic’ singer’s passing.”