Tonie the Emperor

Tonie the Emperor is a Nigerian recording artist under Emperor Entertainment’s El-Tone records. Born and raised in Lagos Nigeria, he is the 4th child of 4 siblings, with 2 brothers and 1 sister. He started music at age 7 where he started to fiddle with a guitar left behind in his house, by the visiting missionaries at the time, and has since gone on-several decades later to become a professional guitarist and active stage performer. He also plays the keyboard, saxophone and other African percussion instruments.

His musical talents have paved ways for him in the Nigerian music & movie industries, where his song ''Se iranti'' was played in the 2012 Nollywood movie "Family on Fire" written and produced by the veteran movie producer, Tade Ogidan. The movie, subsequently became a hit in Nigerian cinemas, garnering additional global exposure through premieres and festivals in foreign countries.

His musical influences reflect a combination of jazz, classical, folk, and reggae with musical influences like Nat king Cole, Louis Amstrong, Bob Marly, Ebenezer Obe & King Sunny Ade. This culminated in the release of his first album titled ‘The Enigma of Love’ in 2013, which went on to receive credible feedback, and positive reviews by both listeners and the professional Nigerian music community. The lead single "Enigma" was played on popular Nigerian radio station 96.9 Cool FM, providing a befitting platform for Tonie the Emperor to gradually introduce himself to the mainstream audience.

6 years later and 60 LIVE performances afterwards, shared performing on some of Nigeria's biggest stages and festivals, with international performances in Hong Kong and Scotland, he recently released his 2nd album "The Emperor's Groove", a more matured version of Afro-folk music blended with indigenous percussion and melody, cutting across various subjects from love, betrayal to the need for man to show respect for his fellows and his maker, the album has something for you to groove about.

The album, so far has been described as ''easy to listen to'' and ''having no need for the listener to press skip'' with new followers discovering this unique African sound everyday via social media.

Every track on this project represents the nature and aspirations of Tonie the Emperor, the guitarist, the performer, the musician.

His focus is now on his band, The Emperor's Band, who played in the Emperor's Groove Album.