Legendary musician and ‘Burga highlife’ pioneer, George Darko has passed on to the next world. According to reports, he died on March 20, 2024. He was a gifted guitarist, vocalist, composer, and songwriter who had been gracing the music scene since the late 1960s.
George Darko was hugely popular in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, and his songs are considered some of the most timeless and enduring highlife tracks in Ghana’s music scene. Hits like “Akoo te bro”, “Odo Color” and “Masem Nie” still resonate deeply with fans today. Some other classics in Darko’s catalog included “Highlife Time Menewo Mienu Doyi (You and I)”, “No Weapon”, and “Anionyam Nka Onyame”. These tracks cemented him as a legend and showcased his immense talent and influence.
This sad news comes as the nation is still mourning another highlife great, KK Kabobo, who recently passed at age 64 after battling liver disease. Hailing from Akropong in Eastern Ghana, Darko was renowned as the king of “burger-highlife”, a genre that blended folk sounds with funk, soul, and other styles popularized by Ghanaian immigrants in Germany in the 1970s-80s. Peers in the scene included Lee Dodou, the Lumba Brothers, Rex Gyamfi, and Charles Amoah.
Darko’s musical journey began with drumming in his youth. He was inspired to pick up the guitar after a teacher crafted one by hand, taking influence also from The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Jimi Hendrix. Later, he settled in Germany, co-founding the Bus Stop Band in 1982 before going solo in 1988.
To many fans, He will be remembered for evergreen singles like “Akoo Te Brofo”, “Moni Palava” and “Odo Color”. He released several beloved albums over his career such as Friends (1983), Highlife Time (1983), Moni Palava (1986), Soronko (1988), Highlife in the Air (1994), and Come to Africa (2006).
In 1991, Darko was bestowed the esteemed title of paramount chief of Akropong-Akuapem, royal name Nana Yaw Ampem Darko. And in 2020, he rightly received the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards Lifetime Achievement honor for his immense contributions to Highlife. Sadly, after three months of palliative care at the Tetteh Quarshie Memorial Hospital in Akuapim-Mampong, Darko passed away at age 73. He leaves behind a timeless musical legacy that will inspire generations to come.
Burger Highlife is a music genre that originated as a variant of highlife music that blends elements of highlife with styles made popular in Germany such as funk and disco. Burger Highlife emerged from collaborations between Ghanaian artists and German musicians and producers in the late 1970s as artists migrated to Europe.
The vocal style in this genre is distinguished by its smooth, lyrical versatility and incorporation of African harmonies and rhythms. Vocals are performed in a call-and-response format, with the main vocalist improvising and being answered by a chorus. It employs synthesizers and Western post-production techniques alongside guitar-driven highlife instrumentation.