Yinka Davies

Yinka Davies is a Nigerian vocalist, dancer, lyricist and was a judge of the music reality show, Nigerian Idol. These origins affect her musical influences. She remembers that her father had a guitar. She grew up to the sounds of Sam Cooke, Johnny Cash, Elvis and Jimmy Dean when she was growing up as this was the music that her father liked to listen to. As she grew older in the 1970s and 1980s the radio at her grandmother’s house was always tuned to Radio Lagos which played a variety of African music from Manu Dibango (Cameroun - Makossa), Mmaman Shatta (traditional Northern Nigerian musician), Dan Maria Jos (Northern Nigeria), Orlando Julius (southern Nigeria - highlife), Hadjia Funtua (northern Nigeria), Victor Uwaifo (southern Nigeria - Joromi), and Fela (southern Nigeria - Afrobeat).