Soca music, Carnival anthems and Caribbean party classics
Trinidad and Tobago · Groovy / Afrosoca
Known simply as Olatunji or “Ola” — the singer who carried groovy soca onto the world stage by fusing it with Afrobeats.
“Engine Room (Official Music Video).” Official video via JulianspromosTV (verified promoter channel).
Olatunji Yearwood, known simply as Olatunji or “Ola,” is the Trinidadian singer who carried groovy soca onto the world stage by fusing it with Afrobeats. The son of composer Edward Yearwood and actress and broadcaster Mairoon Ali, he won junior calypso competitions as a teenager and sang with the bands Traffik and the Roy Cape All Stars. His breakthrough came in 2015 when his single “Ola” won the International Groovy Soca Monarch — he remains the last winner of that category before the competition format changed. The Fader magazine featured him as the face of Afrosoca, and his debut international album Awakening followed on Fox Fuse in 2016. In 2018 he reached a new audience on the UK's X Factor, and he continues to record groovy soca with an Afrobeats pulse.