According to the Music in Africa and The Guardian, Kehinde Lijadu, one half of the iconic Nigerian duo the Lijadu Sisters, has died following a cancer battle. There is a GoFundMe the family has organized for her memorial service. Taiwo Lijadu, her twin sister and band mate, writes, “Kehinde was my light, my love, my soul mate… my everything. I am bereft and will miss her dearly.” She was 71.

She was born on September 18th, 1948 in Ibadan, Nigeria, where Kehinde and Taiwo began performing together as children. The pair demanded a session of their own after working as session singers in 1969. The Lijadu Sisters released several albums on the Decca subsidiary Afrodisia. They performed at the Munich Summer Olympics with the band Salt. The Lijadus often addressed the political unrest in Nigeria in their music and they also talked about the lack of women in the West African music scene.