In the 1960s and 70s, the Lijadu Sisters were stars in Nigeria thou they are still relatively unknown to the rest of the world. The identical twin sisters’ song “Come on Home,” from their 1979 LP Horizon Unlimited, is a gleeful, shimmery mixture of Afrobeat, funk, and soul that hasn’t lost even a bit of its luster in the last 38 years.

The Lijadu Sisters fused their Nigerian roots and more Euro-centric elements into their music. “Come on Home” features lyrics both in English and their native Yoruba and starts with a West African talking drum sequence and then jumps straight into a bass guitar pattern. As they likely did in many aspects of their life together, the sisters mastered vocal harmony. While you can tell there are two voices, they seem to sing as one, intermingling their voices seamlessly, backed by sprightly piano rhythms and funky bass slaps. “Come on Home” is summery, the sonic equivalent of a flowery sun dress, and a timeless testimony to the internationally ubiquitous feeling of joy.

Identical twin sisters, Kehinde Lijadu (22 October 1948 – 9 November 2019) and Taiwo Lijadu (born 22 October 1948) were Nigerian musicians known professionally as the Lijadu Sisters from the mid-1960s to the 1980s. Their career was based on success in Nigeria, also having more modest success in the US and Europe. The duo, described as a musical powerhouse incorporating Afrobeat, jazz, and disco into its music, largely withdrew from recording after the late 1980s but returned to more regular work and performance in the 2010s before the death of Kehinde in 2019. They are the cousins of the celebrated Nigerian musician Fela Kuti.