Nigeria’s Justina Lee Brown becomes first African to win Swiss Blues Award

Nigerian Afrofunk, Jazz, Blues and Soul singer Justina Ogunlolu, popularly known as Justina Lee Brown, has emerged as the 2024 Swiss Blues Award winner.


The singer was declared the winner of the highly coveted Swiss Blues Award recently in Nigerian Afrofunk, making her the first African to accomplish this feat.

This decision, which was made by an independent jury of experts, saw three nominations this year, which included Justina Lee Brown, Federico Albertoni and Manu Hartmann.


Justina Lee Brown, whose breakout song Omo 2 Sexy under the name Justina still poses as one of the greatest pop songs delivered by a female in the Nigerian music industry in the 2000s, continues to expand her star power decades later.

Lee Brown, who is now domiciled in Europe, has morphed into an Afro-funk, Jazz, Blues, and Soul singer, leaving behind the label of an emerging Afrobeats diva. She now graces several auditoriums, amphitheaters and stages in Europe

Presently, she has put out two albums, ‘Black and White Feeling’ released in 2019, as well as ‘Lost Child’ in 2023, which the Swiss Blues Society named the “Best Self-produced Album” of that year.

The Swiss Blues Award is an annual event by the Blues Festival Basel association in a bid to honour individuals or institutions in Switzerland who have made remarkable impacts on the blues scene, either as artistes, promoters or supporters.

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