The Japan tour of Ghanaian Highlife band Santrofi came to close on July 16, 2024 after performing at 13 venues throughout Japan since June 26, 2024. Highlife is a traditional Ghanaian rhythms, but Santrofi brings “a nostalgic, yet, progressive edge” to create its unique blend that also fuses funk and jazz melodies. The band toured Japan for the first time ever at the invitation of the Min-On Concert Association.
Santrofi kicked off its tour at Fukuoka Sunpalace Hotel & Hall, wowing the Japanese audience with its tantalizingly smooth and upbeat West African songs, a selection that include “Alewa (Black & White),” “Africa,” “Kwaa kwaa” and “Cocoase.”
On June 24, the band members paid a courtesy call on Min-On’s head office in Tokyo, where they visited the Min-On Music Museum’s collection of classic pianos and music boxes. During their visit, the band members pledged to popularize Highlife worldwide and that their concerts would stay in the hearts of concertgoers for the rest of their lives.
On July 8, Santrofi performed at the Ota City Residents Hall in Tokyo, which was attended by Her Excellency Genevieve Edna Apaloo, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Ghana to Japan, together with 13 representatives of foreign diplomatic missions in Tokyo. Following their final concert at the Kanagawa Kenmin Hall in Yokohama on July 16, the band departed from Narita International Airport for Ghana. Before leaving, Santrofi leader Emmanuel Ofori described the Japan tour as “the best” among all other countries his band had toured, adding that they looked to return in the near future.
We would like to thank everyone involved in making this tour a success, and to the audiences who attended.
