Bukola Bekes, the Nigeria based songwriter, singer and iconic “minister of God“ currently tops my playlist. Picking a favorite from her large discography is always tasking. She always has music for everyone and perhaps for different phases of life.
“Gba Gbogbo Ogo,” her long playing song, has been my best companion for more than a week. The song is a crossbreed between various sounds. Bukola Bekes delicately takes the listeners through a distinct mood while making sure the whole essence of the song is jealousy maintained.
With this song, Bukola Bekes can rival any worship song around. With the impressive display by the instrumentalist and the production team, they all combine their strengths to craft this song.
A skittering piano strings, with a shaker and snare kickoff the song, this serves as the foundation for the singer vocal, “gba gbo gbo ogo Lori aiye wa, gba gbogbo iyin Lori , gba gbogbo ope lori aiye wa, Jesu tire ni she,” she sings. She was swiftly joined by the backup singers, the sonorous and neat vocal echoes the message with more refrain being sang by them.
Bukola Bekes adores God throughout this song while thanking him for the beautiful things he has done. The song is primarily sung in Yoruba language, even though there might be language deficiency for the non-speakers of this language ,the production makes such a thing less noticeable with the laborious , smartly arranged instrumentals.
The vocal structure changes as the song takes on more elements. At the beginning, the vocals sound heartful, in the worshipping section of the song, it finds the singer exploring her spirit-filled articulation. The vocal inflections neatly align with the drum pattern and other instruments. At the four-minute mark, the saxophone subdues the vocal, and the solo run goes on for some seconds before Bukola Bekes’s vocals come up again to continue the beautiful run of play.
On “Gba Gbogbo Ogo,” Bukola Bekes stretches her vocal to the limit, this makes the lapses on the production less noticeable, when they sometimes don’t sync, you might not notice.
With just a second from clocking the eleven minute mark, Bukola Bekes makes this song less boring. With the current attention span, one would think things would drag for long, this never happens as she makes every second, instrument and vocal count.
“Gba Gbogbo Ogo,” finds Bukola Bekes showing off the years of mastery she has undergone, nothing comes less than excellent from this song. It is a Grand and well composed statement from the singer.