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Music of Benin
Home of the griot/jeli tradition, the kora and balafon, Afrobeat, Highlife, Mbalax and the desert blues of the Sahel.
Sung and searched in French. The YouTube button above can run your search in that language.
Roots and traditions
National music
The national anthem of Benin, adopted upon independence in 1960, is "L'Aube Nouvelle" (The New Dawn) by Gilbert Jean Dagnon. The Gangbe brass band is an internationally prominent Beninese ensemble.
Popular music
Popular music
In 1972, the Kérékou government came to power and instituted curfews and other measures that inhibited musical expression. Kérékou encouraged indigenous folk music. Some musicians, like Tohon Stan, adapted folk styles for mainstream audiences at home and abroad, including tchinkoumé, a funeral music played using water percussion which was adapted into tchink-system music. Sagbohan Danialou, a multi-instrumentalist from Porto Novo, is another very influential musician who transformed traditional Vodou religious rhythms such as kakagbo into popular music. Ignacio Blazio Osho was perhaps the most influential musician of the post-independence period, alongside Pedro Gnonnas y sus Panchos, Les Volcans and Picoby Band d'Abomey. Pedro produced the song Feso Jaiye, which became a hit and was performed by many bands at the 2nd All-Africa Games in 1973. Nel Oliver debuted in France in 1976, borrowing elements from all over Africa and the United States to create "Afro-akpala-funk".
Read the full article: Music of Benin Text under CC BY-SA 4.0
Playing now
What Benin is listening to in 2026
Articles
No articles for Benin yet. Save a Markdown file to content/articles/ with
country: Benin in its front matter.
Live radio
Radio from Benin
Music only, no news or talk. Stations that play the local tradition come first, then the most listened. They play in the corner of the page.
Station directory by Radio Browser Streams come from each station's own server.
Further reading
Open-access scholarship on the music of Benin. Every one is free to read.
- A Conceptual Approach to the Study of Song and Music in Benin Society
- Audience comprehension of messages in cultural troupe performances: Evidence from Benin City, Nigeria
- From Choirs to Collective Singing Communities: Learning the Art of Care from a Journey Through Lebanon, Mozambique, Benin, and Greece
Indexed by OpenAlex 11 open-access works in all Metadata under CC0 1.0