A proposal to bring Afro-Brazilian Yoruba music to Lagos next year stole the spotlight at lyric soprano Funmi Bucknor’s 2026 Global Melodies concert recently, as Brazil’s Consul General in Lagos, Ronaldo Vieira, invited the Nigerian singer to collaborate with Brazilian musicians and researchers.

A statement by Israel Scroll Media said the concert held in Lagos, featured operatic classics by Richard Strauss, Giacomo Puccini and Charles Gounod alongside indigenous Nigerian music, while Bucknor also announced plans to stage a play next year with the long-term goal of turning it into an African opera.

“This is Global Melodies, but I didn’t hear Brazil on the programme. So perhaps next year, we should travel to Brazil,” Vieira said.

Vieira explained that enslaved Africans in Brazil preserved Yoruba language and culture through religion and music, adding that researchers had recently uncovered songs written in both Yoruba and Portuguese in a church basement in Brazil. “I think one of the few countries outside Nigeria that speaks Yoruba is Brazil. We have songs in Yoruba in Brazil, and I didn’t see these songs,” he said.

He proposed a formal collaboration. “I’d like to make a proposal. Why don’t we collaborate with Brazilian musicians and researchers? Then next year we can bring some of this beautiful Afro-Brazilian music to Lagos and share it with everyone.”

Speaking after the performance, Bucknor described herself simply: “I’m a lyric soprano. I’m a creative. I love to sing, I love to paint and I love to write stories.”

She said this year’s concert, titled, “Global Melodies,” began with her debut concert in 2012 after years of preparation. “Having gone through several trainings and having been a member of different choirs, I thought it was time for me to do my own concert.”

Many of the foreign-language pieces, she explained, were songs she learnt while studying music in 2004. “They’re usually concert-type songs that artists sing at concerts all over the world. Whether they’re in German, Italian or Czech, they’re part of the classical music tradition.”

Asked what distinguished her artistry, Bucknor replied: “I think what’s unique about me is me being me, because nobody can sound like me, and I don’t sound like anybody else.” Beyond performing, Bucknor works in human resources, paints and writes, a combination she admitted remains difficult to explain. “To be honest, I don’t know how I’m able to marry everything, but somehow I am doing it.”

She encouraged people not to limit themselves to a single identity. Looking ahead, she revealed plans to expand her creative portfolio. “I’m going to do music, but I’m also going to do a stage play. I hope to bring it to life next year and eventually turn it into an African opera.”

Bucknor’s musical journey began at the age of six when her father, a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, taught her the piano.