Afrobeats Eruption: Bob Ejike, Founder Of Nollywood, Releases Just Love On 23 November

Bob Ejike, the Nigerian artist who helped start Nollywood, returns with a twelve-track Afrobeats album, Just Love, out 23 November
Bob Ejike has released many records. He has not, until now, released one quite like this.

Just Love is a twelve-track Afrobeats album, written, composed and performed by Ejike, and set for release on 23 November through Amuse to 31 music services across 250 countries. It arrives with the whole catalogue behind it: Just Love, Fortune Teller, Fiesta, Love Dance, Margerita, Mirror Mirror, Shakeam, Bright Eyes, Yaga Yaga, Forevermore, Dance Love and Cry.

For most artists that would be a career. For Ejike it is one room in a very large house.

He was born in Umuahia, Abia State, was reading Chinua Achebe at six, and was still a schoolboy at Government College Umuahia when his short stories appeared in Drum, on the same page as Ben Okri. He took a theatre arts degree at the University of Port Harcourt under Ola Rotimi, Gabriel Okara and Elechi Amadi, was the youngest columnist and theatre director in Nigeria, and recorded his first album, No Vacancy, during his national service in Ogun State. He joined Ken Saro-Wiwa’s Basi and Co as actor and scriptwriter.

Then he made the film that changed the industry. Echoes of Wrath, starring Richard Mofe-Damijo, won the National Festival of Arts and Culture and went to market ahead of Living in Bondage, and with it the Nigerian video-film revolution began. Ejike is regarded as the founder of Nollywood, now the second largest film industry in the world, and has made some 550 music videos along the way.

Europe came next, and stayed. He has performed at the Odeon in Greenwich as guest artist at two film launches, and for the British Council, the Alliance Francaise and the Goethe Institute. He is Director of Music to the Miss Commonwealth Beauty Pageant, performs annually at the EPRA Awards, a celebration of African diaspora achievement attended by British mayors, and holds its Lifetime Achievement Award. He was also the face of Britain’s Spot the Sign campaign against modern slavery, which ran across UK television.

Uganda was six years. He founded Probe Studios in Kampala and ran the Ugawood project with General Elly Tumwine, an attempt to build a film industry on the Nollywood model, and President Yoweri Museveni is a fan of his music. Then came the tour with Aki and Pawpaw, Nigeria’s best-loved comedy pair: the shows Ejike staged with them in Kampala and Jinja drew more than 250,000 people, with Bobi Wine on the bill. At the Imperial Royal Hotel in Kampala the Nigerian Charge d’Affaires, Ahmed Abubakar, sat in the front seat of an overcrowded concert hall. He has also performed across the United States, at the African American Festival of Arts and Culture and Igbo Fest in Chicago among others.

In 2013 he stood on a stage in Dubai as Nigeria’s entry at the World Music Fiesta and was named Best Performer out of 35 groups from 35 nations, draped in Nigeria’s colours, singing Hotter Than Dubai, Gimmi Gimmi, Iyawo Mi and All Through The Night. The papers called him Nigeria’s King of Pop and Nollywood Ambassador.

The album is an argument for the same thing he has argued all his life: that African popular music belongs in the mainstream of world music, not at its edges. Twelve songs, one voice, one writer, one performer.

Just Love is released on 23 November 2026. Broadcast-quality audio, biography, photographs and the Afrobeats pack are available through multilingo.online.

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Bob Ejike is a Nigerian-Italian artist, composer, actor and filmmaker, and the founder of Nollywood. In 2013 he was named Best Performer at the World Music Fiesta in Dubai, representing Nigeria against 35 nations. His film Echoes of Wrath, starring Richard Mofe-Damijo, won NAFEST and preceded Living in Bondage into the market, beginning the Nigerian video-film revolution. He has toured and performed in Europe, the United States and Uganda, including the concerts he staged with Aki and Pawpaw in Kampala and Jinja. His catalogue includes Darling Give Me, Agbalumo, Money Dey, Africa, Sala Maleku, Love Dance and Mama.

All songs written, composed and performed by Bob Ejike.

Press contact: Office of Bob Ejike, music@multilingo.online, multilingo.online