P-Square: Nigerian Afrobeats twins make up after years of feuding

2 years ago 41
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By Keisha Gitari
BBC News, Lagos

Image source, Getty Images

Image caption,

P-Square were popular across Africa, winning MTV Africa's Artist of the Decade award in 2015

The musical twin brothers who make up P-Square, one of Africa's best-known Afrobeats groups, have reconciled ending a years-long bitter feud.

The Nigerian duo - Peter and Paul Okoye - fell out over a family dispute, finally splitting in 2017.

They jointly celebrated their 40th birthdays on Thursday letting their Instagram followers know they were back together.

In 2015, P-Square were named Artist of the Decade by MTV Africa.

It is not clear if the siblings will be making new music together, but fans, who have been celebrating the reconciliation, clearly want that to be the case.

They are hoping for more hits like Do Me, Chop My Money and Bizzybody, which catapulted the pair to fame across the continent and beyond.

The exact cause of the fall-out has never been made public however past attempts at bringing them together, involving politicians, religious leaders and other celebrities fell through.

Various social media posts that they shared since the split hinted that the feud involved their wives and older brother, who was also their manager.

But in an Instagram message on Thursday, Peter and Paul said "2 heads are better than 1".

There had already been hints that the two may have ended the row after they followed each other on Instagram. Then a video of them embracing went viral on Wednesday.

After the split they both went on to start solo careers as Mr. P (Peter) and Rudeboy (Paul) but neither reached the levels of success they achieved as P-Square.

As a duo they dominated the Nigerian music scene for years and were one of the first groups to export Afrobeats to other parts of the continent.

Their sell-out live performances were enhanced by their energetic break-dancing routines.

There were also collaborations with performers such as Tanzania's Diamond Platinumz and American superstar Akon.

They signed to Akon's Konvict Muzik label in 2011 and then a year later clinched a distribution deal with Universal Music Group.

As well as being named MTV Africa's Artist of the Decade in 2015 they won the Best Group title three times.

Additional reporting by the BBC's Nduka Orjinmo in Abuja

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