Victor Uwaifo

Victor Uwaifo Biography / Profile

Sir Victor Uwaifo was born on the 1st of March, 1941 in Benin City, Edo state, Nigeria

Victor Uwaifo Age

Victor Uwaifo is 83 years old.

Victor Uwaifo Early Life

He fell in love with music while listening to gramophone records of Spanish and Latin American musicians and at age 12, was already a very good guitar player.

Sir Victor Uwaifo attended Western Boys High School and St. Gregory’s College, Lagos obtaining a National Art Diploma, Distinction from Yaba College of Technology, Lagos where he won the Lintas scholarship as the best student before going on to the University of Benin where he graduated with a First Class degree in Fine and Applied Arts and then later obtaining a Master’s Degree in Sculpture from thesame school.

On graduation, Sir Victor took got a job with the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) where he soon became Assistant Head of Department of Graphics.

Victor Uwaifo Career

Sir Victor's career started while he was still at school, playing for Victor Olaiya’s all-stars band in Lagos on contract basis and leading the school band. He soon formed his own band, the Melody Maestros while working with the NTA, recording songs like “Oko no mu me”, “Police and Akugbe” among others between 1960 and 1965.

In 1965, he signed-up with Philips (West Africa) label and succeeded in releasing hits like "Guitar Boy", "Joromi" and "Siwo-Siwo". These songs were very popular in Nigeria and some other parts of Africa at the time. Between 1965 and 1968, he developed the Akwete rhythm sound. In 1969, he launched a new beat called "Shadow" accompanied by a new dance also called "shadow", which was a mixture of Akwete and twist. He released another single, "Mami Water" which he claims was inspired by an encounter with a "Mami water" (Mermaid) while he was lounging on Bar Beach, Lagos.

Sir Victor Uwaifo invented the double neck “magic guitar” with 18 strings which he rotates 360 degrees at the speed of sound. As he got older, he started experimenting with fusing Highlife and Hip hop in his album "Colabo" in 2012 where he featured younger Nigerian musicians like Tuface Idibia, Dare Art Alade, Henry Sax, Tobi Adegoke, Kunle Ayo and Ekhator Osas. He plays the guitar not just with his fingers but also with his jaw, his toes, his teeth, from behind his neck and back

Sir Victor Uwaifo and his band had several national and international performance tours at Abidjan, Ghana, Europe, the United States of America, Japan and the former Soviet Union. He represented Nigeria at the Black Art Festival in Algiers in 1969 and at the African Common Wealth Festival, London in 1973. He has released over a hundred records so much that it has been said that you can play his record nonstop for a month.

As a business man and entrepreneur, Sir Victor Uwaifo founded Joromi Hotel in Benin City, and also a television and recording studio where he produced the famous Victor Uwaifo shows in the late 1970s and 80s, Revelation Tourist Center which stands as the key to historical events, horrors tragedies, the Good, the Bad, the Ugly and the Beautiful.

As a sculptor, Sir Victor Uwaifo held 3 solo Art Exhibitions and took part in many group exhibitions and has commissioned a number of projects including; The Cenotaph at the parade ground in Yola, Adamawa State, in Maiduguri, Borno State; Isaac Boro Park, Port-Harcourt, Rivers State; The Unknown Soldier, Abeokuta, Ogun State; Akwa-Ibom State House Beautification in Uyo; The Kinetic Sculpture at Oba Akenzua II Cultural Complex, Benin City; Pilgrimage ground (45 giant statues) Stations of the Cross at Igarra, Edo State; The Grotto Beautification Stations in Holy Cross Cathedral, Benin City; Holy Mary at Saint Benedict, Ijebu-Ode; Stations of the Cross at Catholic Church Agenebode, Igiode, Ubiaja, Edo State; Elaganza Giant Eagle at Apapa, Lagos; Stained Glass at St. Savior’s Anglican Church, Etete, Benin City, Edo state and St. John’s Anglican Church, College Road, Benin City, Edo State to mention a few. He discovered the structural rightness in sculpture that stands without a supporting base and has been named the first artisit in Nigeria to sculpt a motorized giant kinetic sculpture and the first Nigerian artist to present sculpture in true – to – life material, human skin resemblance in tourism art setting with sound and movement simulations

As an educator and writer, he has written four books inclusing his Autobiography “My Life”, The Nigerian Music, Philosophy of Life and Reflections. He is a lecturer at the Department of Fine and Applied Arts at the University of Benin, Benin City an in 2009 and was appointed visiting professor to the American Heritage University, California, U.S.A.

He is a trustee of the Performing Musicians Associations of Nigeria (PMAN). In 2001, he was appointed as the pioneering Honorable Commissioner for Arts, Culture and Tourism in Edo State and thus became the first performing artist to serve as member of the State Executive Council in Nigeria. He is the first Maestro to be appointed as Justice of the Peace in Nigeria from 2000 to 2003. Sir Victor is the First African to win a Record Gold Disc and has a total of 12 gold and 4 silver records.

Victor Uwaifo Personal Life

He is married with children.

He enjoys reading, studying nature, meditating, body building and swimming.

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Victor Uwaifo Awards

National honor of Member of the Order of the Niger (M.O.N) by President Shehu Shagari in 1983.
Certificate of Honor by the House of Representatives, Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States of America
2017 City People Movie Lifetime Achievement Award
2017 Living Human Treasure Award by the U.N.E.S.C.O