Do you know Madam Comfort Omoge who started singing at 17? Here are 8 facts about her

Madam Comfort started with music at age 17, but her career really took off in the 1970s. 

Ashiko music is one that is indigenous to the Ikale tribe of the Okitipupa division of Ondo State. I’m partial because I hail from there. 

Back in the days, men usually led the bands. It was a music that centres its theme around folklores, stories of people, histories, mystique of the Divine, mysteries of life, proverbs and idioms among others. A man often led, supported by a band of men and very rarely women.

Ashiko is like an acapella supported by rhythmic sequence of drums, agogo and shekere.

Ashiko to the Ikales is what Biripo is to the Ilajes or Adamo to the Ifes. They are distinctly dialectical. The Ashiko starts with a full acapella, then subtly accentuated by sekere, agogo and drums until the music warms up with the instruments in full gear.

 It’s the style of praise and worship in most C&S and Zion churches.

Now what makes Chief Omoge unique is that she was the one that took Ashiko music far and wide across continents. She recorded and produced her first album at the age of 57 almost 58 years. Yes. You read me. 

8 things to know about Madam comfort

1. Now wait for it. Omoge did not have to. She was a princess born into a royal house in Osooro, Ikaleland and was later married to Oba Williams Omoge of Igodigo also in Ikaleland. 

So she was a princess, a Queen and a mother of prince and princesses. Omo oba. Aya oba. Iya oba. 

2. She was a member of the C&S church where she was a chorister and also a respected minstrel in her church. But her passion to sing professionally kept eating at her heart and close to her sixth decade she entered the studio in 1976. 

3. What’s interesting was that her husband, did not allow her gift to die but encouraged her to go for her recordings and to travel for her performances.

6. Comfort Omoge assembled a band which also included her children and they made great music. The band was named Comfort Omoge and her Ashiko Musical Group.

7. Ashiko was accepted both locally and internationally. She with her band went on tours across the country and all over the world. She performed at highbrow gatherings and national events. 

She was a recipient of both local national and international awards.

8. She performed from 1976 till the nineties. Chief Comfort Omoge died on August 25 1998 at the age of eighty years and peacefully.

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