Adekunle Gold

Adekunle Gold is the stage name of Adekunle Almoruf Kosoko, a Nigerian singer and songwriter born in Lagos on 28 January 1987. Before music paid the bills he was a graphic designer, and he is the man behind the YBNL Nation logo. He trained in Arts and Design at Lagos State Polytechnic and wrote his first song at 15.

His break came in December 2014 with “Sade”, a highlife reworking of One Direction’s “Story of My Life”. Olamide signed him to YBNL in March 2015, and his debut album Gold reached number 7 on the Billboard World Albums chart in 2016. After his YBNL contract ran out he went his own way with his band, The 79th Element, and a run of albums: About 30 (2018), Afro Pop, Vol. 1 (2020) and Catch Me If You Can (2022).

Def Jam signed him in 2023 for Tequila Ever After, and in October 2025 he released Fuji, a 15-track album whose title stands for Finding Uncharted Journeys Inside. He has spoken openly about living with sickle cell disease, which shaped his song “5 Star” and led to the Adekunle Gold Foundation. He is married to the singer Simi.