Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 Performing at Solana Beach

For the first time in years, legendary Afrobeat artist and Kuti family scion SEUN KUTI & EGYPT 80 are touring the globe with their upcoming US and European tour, hitting stops at major festivals and unique venues along the way. Locally, they will be at Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach on Tuesday, July 12 at 7 p.m.

Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 will be performing classic anthems and recent songs from their catalog—including the most recent album Black Times—alongside new material.

While Seun has taken time off the road, he has remained creatively active, collaborating and performing with Common and Black Thought—co-founder and MC of The Tonight Show house band The Roots—on the song “When We Move.” The song premiered to a worldwide audience for UN World Oceans Day last June and then on Jimmy Fallon’s The Tonight Show in August. The latter of which featured Seun’s performance from The New Afrika Shrine in Lagos intercut with Common, Black Thought, and The Roots on stage at Rockefeller Center in New York.

The youngest son of visionary Fela Kuti, Seun has continued the family tradition of fusing music and politics into something transcendent. He started opening for his dad at age nine and joined Egypt 80 before he was twelve. He assumed leadership of the band following his father’s passing in 1997 and has led it ever since. 

Seun performs his father’s compositions with his own twists, digging deep into to the seminal Afrobeat canon and various African traditions and cultures. Like his parents and grandparents, Seun is an activist on the frontlines—a revolutionary in every sense of the word—who’s been named Pro-Tem Chairman of Movement of the People, the political party launched by his father. With his weekly radio show, his mythical gigs at The New Afrika Shrine, and a righteous social media presence, Seun is a towering figure in Nigeria and revered worldwide.

Ticketing options are available here.

Belly Up Tavern is at 143 S. Cedros Ave in Solana Beach.