Entertainment
Popular Highlife Legend Is Dead
Ebo Taylor, the Ghanaian guitarist, composer, and band leader whose work helped define the highlife genre and influenced generations of African musicians, has died at the age of 90, his family has announced.
Born Deroy Taylor in the city of Cape Coast in 1936, he rose to prominence during the late 1950s and early 1960s as highlife became Ghana’s dominant musical form.
Over a six-decade career, he fused Ghanaian rhythms with jazz, funk, soul, and early Afrobeat and went on to inspire musicians beyond the continent.
Presidential spokesperson Felix Kwakye Ofosu said the government and people of Ghana were “deeply saddened” by the loss of this “colossus” of the country’s music.
In his early years as a performer, Taylor played with the era’s leading bands, including the Stargazers and the Broadway Dance Band, and gained a reputation for a distinctive guitar style and detailed arrangements.
In the last 25 years of his life, his music was rediscovered by a global audience with the release of tracks like Love & Death – his reflection on relationships and mortality – driving a fresh host of fans.
A formative period in Taylor’s musical development came in the early 1960s when he travelled to London to study music.
There, he worked alongside other African musicians, including Nigerian artist Fela Kuti.
Their collaboration is now viewed as part of a wider exchange of ideas that helped shape Afrobeat, the genre Fela would later bring to international attention, with highlife playing a significant role in its musical foundations.
On his return to Ghana, Taylor became a sought-after band leader, arranger, and producer, working with some of the country’s most respected artists, including Pat Thomas and CK Mann.
Reflecting on his own influences, he told the BBC in 2014 that “with the advent of James Brown and funk music, there was the opportunity to develop highlife music. Fela did a lot of work introducing the funk into the Yoruba music, while comparatively, I did almost the same thing in Ghana.”
Towards the end of the last century and the beginning of this, Taylor spent more time teaching music at the University of Ghana and working on other people’s output, the New York Times reported.
But he then returned to the studio and his new recordings began to attract attention well into later life, with albums such as Love & Death, Appia Kwa Bridge, and Yen Ara reinforcing his standing as one of Ghana’s most important musical figures.
Taylor’s influence extended far beyond highlife.
In recent decades, his work has been taken up by international audiences through sampling, with elements of his recordings appearing in songs by artists across hip-hop and R&B.
Tracks including Heaven, Odofo Nyi Akyiri Biara, and Love & Death have been sampled by performers including Usher, the Black Eyed Peas, Kelly Rowland, Jidenna, Vic Mensa, and Rapsody, introducing his music to new listeners worldwide.
Talking about achieving wider recognition in his 70s, he said: “I think I’ve had my day, though it came much later.”
In his tribute, top Ghanaian music producer Panji Anoff remembered how everybody used to call him “Uncle Ebo,” but he treated everyone as an equal.
“He would sit with us, eat with us, drink and chill with us, some nearly 50 years his junior, as though we were all peers. He could relate with everybody, and if anybody ever needed a melody, Uncle Ebo would just plug in a guitar and show them the way,” Anoff told the BBC.
“We lost a legend whose contribution to music has created worldwide ripples. I take solace in the fact that I witnessed greatness in Uncle Ebo Taylor’s art form. Rest In Power!” singer and rapper Black Sherif said.
Reflecting on Taylor’s influence, Shatta Wale said that “his sound, vision and cultural impact opened doors for countless artists across Africa and beyond”.
“He will be remembered as one of our greatest musicians ever… as a man who strove to put Ghanaian music on the global map at a time when other genres of music were prominent,” presidential spokesperson Ofosu told the BBC’s Newsday programme.
Across Ghana and the wider African diaspora, Taylor is recognised as a foundational figure whose work helped bridge traditional and modern sounds.
By grounding innovation in cultural continuity, he left behind a body of music that continues to inform contemporary styles, including afrobeats, and remains central to the story of African popular music.
A Nigerian human rights lawyer, Ike Obasi, has given actress, politician, and self-proclaimed evangelist, Tonto Dikeh, 72 hours to apologize over a viral video showing her conducting a deliverance session on a school child, describing the act as abusive and a violation of the minor’s rights and dignity.
Obasi said the footage circulating on social media was deeply troubling and highlighted the need to protect children from degrading treatment.
“It is disturbing that an innocent child could be subjected to such abusive and degrading treatment under the guise of religious deliverance,” he said.
He added that such actions, capable of humiliating or traumatizing a minor, should not be tolerated.
“I hereby give Tonto Dikeh 72 hours to tender a public apology to the child involved in the video,” Obasi stated.
The lawyer warned that failure to comply would leave him no choice but to pursue legal action.
“If she fails to apologize within the stipulated period, we will take the necessary legal steps to ensure accountability and protect the rights and dignity of the minor involved,” he said.
In a related development, social media influencer and activist Vincent Otse, popularly known as Very Dark Man (VDM), also condemned Dikeh’s actions.
He described it as a violation of the child’s rights and warned her never to set foot in the school again, recalling that she had been absent when the school was left dilapidated until his non-governmental organization rehabilitated it with 30 million Naira.
VDM joined a growing chorus of influencers and activists criticizing the actress for allegedly pinning the child on a sandy floor, with her long nails pressed on the child’s eyes, under the guise of deliverance.
The incident raises pressing questions: Will relevant authorities intervene, or will it be overlooked? Has any law been broken? Will Dikeh apologize as demanded by the lawyer, and if she refuses, will legal action be taken? Only time will tell.
BBNaija winner, Ilebaye Precious Odiniya, has undergone a facelift procedure.
In a viral video, the Big Brother Naija cast member was seen in a hospital undergoing the procedure.
The reality star notes that she wants to look younger, lifted, and rejuvenated.
“I want to look younger, lifted, and rejuvenated. But I still want to look like me, though, I still want to look like a Gen Z baddie.
And of course we got to work because true elegance is always subtle, balanced, rejuvenated, never giving fake, botched or exaggerated,” she said in the video, seeming to advertise the clinic for anyone else who is interested.
Ilebaye is an entrepreneur, actress, and model who won the Big Brother Naija All Stars season on October 1, 2023.
She took home the 120 million Naira cash prize, securing 30.08 per cent of the final votes.
Known as the “Gen Z Baddie,” the reality star was the youngest contestant at the time and an ex-Season 7 ‘Level Up’ housemate.
The actress joined the 7th Season of Big Brother Naija on 23 July 2022 as the fourth housemate. She, however, was evicted in the third week of the reality show.
Taking another chance, Ilebaye entered the competition’s All-Star Season as the 13th housemate and was announced the winner during the season finale of the reality show.
Meanwhile, recall that Ilebaye is not the first and only BBnaija star to undergo cosmetic surgery.
Last year, Big Brother Naija ‘Double Wahala’ housemate Nina Ivy underwent a breast reduction surgery.
The reality star expressed excitement at finally undergoing the surgery, as she stated that after her two kids, she never really felt comfortable and confident about her breasts and was super excited to make a change.
Big Brother Naija Level Up winner, Phyna, in an interview with Naija 102 FM, admitted that she had worked on her tummy, but clarified that she hasn’t touched her body.
Explaining the difference between the two, Phyna revealed that she was open to undergoing surgery in the future.
Another Big Brother Naija star, Bambam, admitted in an Instagram video that she had undergone liposuction surgery.
She shared her story on the dark side of surgery, as she noted how no one knew she had altered her shape, hence why she decided to come clean about it.
See video below:
BBNaija All Stars winner Ilebaye just got a face and nose rejuvenation lift to give her a more youthful look, and she looks so good 😍 pic.twitter.com/H2uzvxFuG7
— Calissi✨🤍 (@calisssii) March 10, 2026
Jennifer Runyon, an actor known for roles in “Ghostbusters” and the sitcom “Charles in Charge,” has died, according to her friends and family.
She was 65.
“Bewitched” actor Erin Murphy shared on social media that Runyon died “after a brief battle with cancer,” calling Runyon a “special lady.”
A family representative confirmed Runyon died Friday after a “long and arduous journey that ended with her surrounded by her family.”
Runyon’s daughter, Bayley Corman, honored her mother in a tribute carousel of photos and videos on Instagram.
“All of the best parts of me came from you. I would give anything for one more day together,” Corman wrote in the caption of the post.
Corman, who followed in her mother’s footsteps as an actor and has had featured roles in “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” and “Jane the Virgin,” also shared a photo of Runyon in a hospital bed with her two dogs. “I wasn’t ready for this,” Corman’s post concluded.
Runyon made her film debut in the 1980 holiday horror movie “To All a Goodnight,” before rising to fame for her roles in “Ghostbusters” and as Gwendolyn Pierce in “Charles in Charge.”
Later, Runyon played Cindy Brady in the film “A Very Brady Christmas” and starred in “The In Crowd.”
The actor married collegiate basketball coach Todd Corman in 1991, and the couple had two children together.
After retiring, Runyon stepped back from the public eye, appearing in a few horror movies since her children were born in the early 1990s.
In a 2023 interview with a horror movie podcaster, Runyon shared that she worked with at-risk youth in high schools for six years after her retirement.
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