Adekunle Kosoko is a singer, a songwriter and also a graphic designer from Nigeria. He is mostly known by his stage name, Adekunle Gold which is quite popular in Africa. He is getting more and more popular outside of Africa as well, but it’s still not as big as he would like it to be.
His surname also helped him gain recognition since he is the nephew of Jide Kosoko, who is royalty in Lagos State. Jide is also known as one of the best Nollywood actors.
Lagos State is located in the south-west of Nigeria and is a very beautiful part of the state.
He calls his music style the urban highlife style and claims that it is one of the best contemporary music styles in the country. He doesn’t ever want to grow apart from this style as it actually connects him with his childhood as well.
Early years
He was born as Omoba Adekunle Kosoko on January 28, 1987, in Lagos in Nigeria. He said that because of this he often gets judged and that people in the music industry make fun of his name. He doesn’t get angry when they mispronounce it, though, and he continues to work hard.
He had spent his childhood alongside his three sisters since he is the only son in the family. He was always very protective of them and said that he cares about them very much.
He comes from a wealthy family and he had a very secure childhood in which most of his wishes were granted. He is happy that he is one of the rare people in Nigeria that grew up steadily, but he also says that it’s very hard to watch all of the inspired, hard-working kids not succeed because of money and stuff like that.
He is well educated and holds a diploma in Arts and Design which he gained after he finished his studies successfully at the Lagos State Polytechnic University. People always assume that he isn’t smart because he is a musician and this bothers him, but he says that he doesn’t feel the need to flash his diploma in front of everyone since he did it for himself, not them.
He was interested in music from a very early age and by the time he entered high school he was into music a lot. His most favorite performers were King Sunny Ade and Ebenezer Obey for which he claims they left a huge impact on his sound.
It was during high school that he decided to form his own music group. He and his friend were very creative and performed at various events. The audience liked them and they started dreaming about recording albums and holding huge concerts.
In 2007 his band released their own first single trying to make a breakthrough but it eventually didn’t work out for them. The song was featured by other two artists named Scale and Da Guitarman.
At the end that happened but later on when Adekunle became a solo artist.
He formed his music group with his friend but later disbanded it himself. This happened in 2014.
All through his teenage years he was a member of the church choir and was praised for his artistic performances.
This was interesting because his parents were Muslim but he found that Christianity suited him more.
He liked to write lyrics and has written his first song when he was only 15.
Although he was born as a Muslim he followed a girl in the church and turned Christian in 2004. He remained a believer still.
Career development
Since he couldn’t live from his music he gained work as an official graphics designer and the faith took him to YBNL where he was hired to make logos for the label.
And he did. He made hundreds of designs for this label and they were very satisfied with his work.
After doing this for a while he had sent his lyrics to Olamide, a prominent singer and the owner of YBNL. It took a lot of courage to send him a song he has written for him.
Olamide liked it and they began their collaboration.
Adekunle stepped towards becoming a recognizable public person in 2014 after he made a photo of himself hugging Tiwa Savage by using Photoshop.
Soon he was named “King of Photoshop” because of his great skills.
He became known to the public after the release of his hit from 2015 called “Sade”. This song was a highlife cover of a song titled “Story of My Life” originally from a British pop group One Direction.
He signed a record deal the same year, with YBNL Nation. They released a debut album titled “Gold” that got to no.7 on the Billboard World Albums list.
Before this album, Adekunle released Sade, Pick Up and Orente.
Orente released his first official single released by YBNL and became a nominee for the 2015 City People Entertainment Awards in the category of the Most Promising Act.
When Adekunle talked to the interviewer for Nigerian Entertainment Today he confessed that it was him who made YBNL’s logo for Olamide, Lil Kesh and Viktoh.
In winter of 2014, he released “Sade”. This song was a cover of “Story of My Life”, originally by One Direction. This song was very well received and the critics loved it. It even got a nomination at the Headies in 2015. It was in the category of “Best Alternative Song”.
In the summer of 2016, he released his debut studio album and it’s cover work. It was called Gold and was produced by B Banks, Seyikeyz, Pheelz, and Masterkraft. This album went to the 7th place on the Billboard World Album Chart in August that year.
In 2016 he had won an Afrima Reward in the category Revelation of Africa.
The same year he won a Beat of Lagos Award in the category for the Best Song.
At Nigerian Entertainment Awards he had received the award for the Best New Act.
After that, he hasn’t contracted to his label anymore and decided to form his own record label brand called “The 79th Element” (because gold’s atomic number is 79).
In 2017 he has received an award for the Album of the Year and Collabo of the Year Award.
At the beginning of 2018, it was announced that Adekunle is now going to take the position of Unity Bank’s ambassador.
Adekunle is the host of 2019 “Gold & Soul Show” which took place in New York and was organized by OkayAfrica.
He had also performed in Washington DC a few days later.
Personal life
Adekunle was in a relationship with a beautiful singer named Simi for a long period of time but they both have been very private about it.
They tied the knot in 2019 and held two wedding ceremonies. Both ceremonies were kept secret and on the bigger one they have called in over 300 guests to share their most important moment with them.
The wedding was all-white with Simi wearing a beautiful white dress and Adekunle in his white suit. The ornaments and flowers were also white.
Simisola or Simi Ogunleye is also a popular singer from Nigeria. Their marriage had very positive reactions since they are both very well-liked.
In 2019 Simi has released her album named “Omo Charlie Champagne Vol.1” which soon became a great selling album. One of the singles from her album is named “By You” and it is a duo with her husband Adekunle.
They have released singles together before and it was a huge success. It was a song named “Promise” which contained their wedding videos and photos and showed how huge romantics they are.
Quick summary
Full name: Omoba Adekunle Kosoko
Date of birth: January 28, 1987
Birthplace: Lagos, Nigeria
Age: 32
Profession: Singer, songwriter, graphic designer
Height: 183 cm
Weight: 79 kg
Net Worth: $500,00