Kokoroko is a British London-based

septet A septet is a formation containing exactly seven members. It is commonly associated with musical groups but can be applied to any situation where seven similar or related objects are considered a single unit, such as a seven-line stanza of poetry ...

, led by Sheila Maurice-Grey and Onome Edgeworth playing a fusion of

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

and

highlife Highlife is a Ghanaian music genre that originated along the coastal cities of present-day Ghana in the 19th century, during its Gold Coast (region), history as a colony of the British and through its trade routes in coastal areas. It encompasse ...

. In February 2019, they were named "ones to watch" by ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', after their track "Abusey Junction" garnered 57 million views on YouTube. "Abusey Junction" won Track of the Year at Gilles Peterson's Worldwide Awards in 2019. In February 2020, they won Best Group at the

Urban Music Awards The Urban Music Awards (UMA) are a hip-hop, R&B, dance, and soul music awards ceremony that was launched in the UK by Jordan Kensington in 2003 and is now held in multiple countries. The US version of the award ceremony, the Urban Music Awar ...

. In September 2020, they played

BBC Proms The BBC Proms is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in central London. Robert Newman founded The Proms in 1895. Since 1927, the ...

at the Royal Albert Hall. Their name is an

Urhobo Urhobo may refer to: *Urhobo people, of Nigeria *Urhobo language Urhobo is a South-Western Edoid language spoken by the Urhobo people of southern Nigeria. It is from the Delta State, Delta and Bayelsa State, Bayelsa States. Phonology Urhobo has ...

word meaning "be strong" or "hard to break". They released their debut album ''Could We Be More'' in August 2022. ''The Guardian'' named it one of the top ten albums of the year. Also in 2022, the band were nominated for Band of the Year at the Jazz FM Awards. Their second album, ''Tuff Times Never Last'' was released on 11 July 2025.

Discography

Albums

References

Afrobeat musical groups British jazz ensembles Musical groups from London Musical octets {{jazz-band-stub