As Broadway musical 'Fela!' set open, everything you need to know of Afrobeat legend:

1. The legendary musician later known as Fela was born Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti on Oct. 15, 1938 in Abeokuta,Nigeria.
2. In 1958, the young musician went to London to study medicine. Instead, he switched to Trinity College of Music.
3. At school, Fela formed the band Koola Lobitos, with whom he developed an early version of the style that would forge an entire genre: Afrobeat.
4. Afrobeat fuses African jazz, funk, Ghanaian highlife and psychedelic rock. This groove-based music style prizes roiling jams and improvised interplays between rhythm and soloing that can balloon the songs from 10 minutes to even 40 minutes.
5. Fela played many instruments, from guitar to drums, but his fat, juicy sax work remained his signature sound.
6. In 1960, Fela married the first of 27 wives. He drew many from his pool of dancers and backup singers. The star explained his polygamy by saying, "A man goes for many women in the first place."
7. In the '70s, Fela divorced 12 of the wives. By the mid-'80s, he got rid of the remaining 15. His explanation? "Marriage brings jealousy and selfishness."
8. In 1969, Fela played the very first dates with his band in America. Here, he came under the influence of the Black Panther Party, whose fiery stances inspired him to further politicize his music. That became evident in his new band: Nigeria '70.
9. After being deported from the U.S. for not carrying the proper work permits, Fela returned to Nigeria and formed the Kalakuta Republic, a recording facility and commune that he came to declare as its own state, distinct from Nigeria. 10. Fela soon changed his middle name to Anikulapo (meaning "he who carries death in his pouch"). He called his birth middle name, Ransome, "a slave name."
11. The musician's increasingly political, and confrontational, music started to alarm the Nigerian government, which raided his Kalakuta compound.
12. In 1972, British superstar drummer Ginger Baker (late of Cream) recorded music with Fela that greatly upped the African's profile with Western rock fans.
13. In 1977, Fela's anti-military album "Zombie" so angered the government, it launched an attack on Kalakuta, which resulted in the death of Fela's mother, who was thrown from a window. The studio and compound was destroyed. Fela himself narrowly escaped death.
14. In 1979, Fela formed his own political party and tried to run for president of the country, but the government refused his candidacy.
15. In 1984, Nigeria's military govern-ment threw him in jail, accusing him of currency smuggling. He spent 20 months in prison.
16. In 1986, Fela enjoyed his greatest Western exposure by performing at Giants Stadium in an Amnesty International concert that also featured Bono and Santana.
17. On Aug. 6, 1997, Fela died of Kaposi's sarcoma, brought on by AIDS. More than 1 million people attended his funeral.

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'Fela!' and fate reunite Broadway show's stars stars, who were friends as teens

It took almost 15 years, but Sahr Ngaujah and Saycon Sengbloh are together again on stage — albeit a much larger stage.When the Broadway musical "Fela!" opens today, high school best friends Ngaujah and Sengbloh will reunite as Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti and his lover/confidant Sandra Isidore."It's the first time that Broadway has ever really dealt with Afrobeat, and it's the first time that Sahr and I have worked together in a long time," says Sengbloh, 32. "That's special."

The show, conceived, choreographed and directed by Bill T. Jones, and backed by the likes of Jay-Z,Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, tells the story of Nigerian musician and activist Fela Anikulapo Kuti, who endured brutality at the hands of the Nigerian government for his music's political leanings.While life wasn't quite as rough for Ngaujah (pronounced n-GOW-ja) and Sengbloh growing up together in the Atlanta suburb of College Park, it certainly was no picnic, either. They both attendedTri-cities High School, a public performing arts school that has produced famous performers such as "Saturday Night Live" star Kenan Thompson and OutKast members Andre 3000 and Big Boi.

"I remember meeting Sahr on the school bus when I was in ninth grade," says Sengbloh. "He was handing out religious pamphlets and acting very serious. I thought he was cool, but it was only later that I found out he was in the theater program."Life for a Tri-Cities student in the early '90s was tough. Despite being a performing arts high school, Tri-Cities remained "one of the roughest, meanest schools in the whole city," according to Ngaujah, 33. "They combined three schools to make Tri-Cities and everybody had something to prove." To escape the fighting, both immersed themselves in the school's dance, art, theater and music programs under the direction of drama department head Freddie Hendricks.

"We performed together a lot in those days," remembers Ngaujah. "Freddie Hendricks also ran a theater company outside of school, and we became leading players in this troupe. So we would be at school all day, then we'd do our magnet studies in the evening, and after that, we would go to some local, dusty gym for rehearsals.""We spent all our days and evening together," adds Sengbloh. "We might as well have lived together."

Today, Hendricks recalls Ngaujah as "the most focused young man I have ever seen"; Sengbloh, he says, "always had a beautiful voice". "I get the chills everytime I talk about it," Hendricks says. "I'm coming to the opening night. I'm going to be Saycon's date on the carpet. That goes to show you how close we are and what kind of bond we have.
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Ayanbirin

Tosin Olakanye,popularly known as Ayanbinrin is a woman in a man's world who not only sings, dances, and chants (Ijala), but also plays the talking drum (Gangan).She is an indigene of Ondo State and the eldest child in a family of four, attended State Primary School, Dopemu and Egbado College Ilaro (now YEWA College). She is a Chemical and Polymer Engineering graduate of Lagos State University and intends to pursue her Masters Degree in an Art related field.

The word Ayanbinrin simply means a female drummer.She started her journey into the world of music at an early age, but never took it seriously until 1999 when she gained admission to Lagos State University for a pre-degree Programme where she joined a traditional group called Landmark Folk voices.

Her musical art exhibits a typical African theatrical fashion, which expresses a blend of old folk songs, and the new, to suit this modern age without loosing its mellifluous and delightful originality.Few artists have been as crucial to the inventions, development and popularization of African Music which has been relegated to the background, but Ayanbinrin digs the roots with her creativity in Ijala, and bata-choreographed dance steps which resonates African traditional values and heritage.She plays seasoned African Rythms with her melodious vocal prowess and the lyrics of her songs dwell on love, tales, and unisms that echoe African Cultural history. Ayanbinrin's zeal for culture has raised her hope to a height beyond imagination as she believes in proven success. She is determined to climb every mountain, search high and low, follow every hill till her dream to become one of the most highly rated musicians in the history of Africa.Ayanbinrin sings in Yoruba, English and also in Ondo, her native dialect.

Ayanbinrin learnt the rudiments of drumming in 2003 although it runs in the family,her paternal grandmother's family come from a line of professional drummers and except for her late grandmother who did not take delight in the trade, her brother did. Her grandma's immediate kid brother was the leader of the Association of talking drummers, of their time, in Ondo and her father as a lover of good music also help her developed interest in folk music.Thus the art has made Ayanbinrin a performer of note as her dexterity at playing numerous African percussions, especially the talking drum and Iya Ilu has attracted masses to her concerts at venues across Nigeria.She has featured prominently in concerts, occasions, and several publications, reports, and articles in the media.

Her costume oozes a fashion sense intended to bring out the inner beauty of the African people as we are are black and beautiful. Her colourful costumes are mainly African attires like Aso Oke, Kampala, Kente, Damask, and Ankara designed with cowries.She aspires to dominate the African Musical Scene with her unique fusion of traditional rhythms and also to be recorded in the history as the most exciting female talking drummer of renowned capability from the continent of Africa who contributed to the promotion of African culture.