As the year begins to lean toward its close in many Yoruba speaking Christian communities, one familiar song often returns with deep emotional force. Its opening words are simple, but they immediately set the tone for reflection, gratitude and prayer: “Odun nlo sopin o,” meaning, “The year is coming to an end.”
For decades, that song has been closely associated with Mrs Deborah Adebola Fasoyin and the Christ Apostolic Church Good Women Choir, Ibadan, the women’s choir whose 1979 recording gave lasting public form to a chorus already known in church circles. Over time, the song grew beyond a recording and became part of the soundscape of year end worship, especially in southwestern Nigeria, where it remains one of the most recognisable Yoruba gospel pieces linked with the closing months of the year.
The Woman at the Centre of the Song
Deborah Adebola Fasoyin became widely known through her leadership of the C.A.C. Good Women Choir, Ibadan. Her name is now tied to one of the most enduring Yoruba gospel recordings of the late twentieth century, but her role was not that of a celebrity singer in the modern sense. She emerged from a church based musical tradition in which choirs were built around fellowship, discipline, worship and collective service.
The choir itself was formed within the women’s fellowship structure of the Christ Apostolic Church. By the mid 1970s, the women had organised themselves into a more formal choir arrangement that could minister at conventions and church programmes. Fasoyin later recalled that the choir came together after the women saw the need for a dedicated group that could serve at major events without depending on outside singers. That decision produced a choir whose sound would later become deeply woven into Yoruba Christian worship.
Before “Odun Nlo Sopin” rose to lasting prominence, the choir had already begun recording music. Their first album, “Halleluyah,” was released in 1977 under Ibukun Orisun Iye Records. That early recording laid the foundation for what would become a notable gospel recording ministry, rooted not in entertainment alone, but in devotion and congregational life.
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The Song Was Older Than the Recording
One of the most important truths about “Odun Nlo Sopin” is that Deborah Fasoyin did not originally compose the chorus from scratch. That point matters because it places the song in its proper church context.
According to Fasoyin’s own account and the historical notes preserved by the choir, the chorus already existed within Christ Apostolic Church worship before the famous recording was made. It was one of the choruses sung in C.A.C. churches in Ibadan and surrounding districts whenever the end of the year was approaching. In other words, the choir did not create the whole song out of nowhere. What they did was preserve, expand and record it in a form that could travel farther than the original congregational setting.
Fasoyin explained that the choir added two verses to the older chorus. That expansion turned a familiar end of year church refrain into a fuller gospel recording suitable for release. This detail is essential to the history of the song because it shows how many African Christian classics were shaped, not by solitary composition alone, but by the adaptation of living worship material already circulating among believers.
The 1979 Recording in Lagos
The defining moment in the public life of “Odun Nlo Sopin” came in 1979. The choir recorded the album on 29 June 1979 at Decca West Africa, 30 Lawani Street, Akoka, Lagos, under the Ibukun Orisun Iye record label.
That studio session has remained an important part of the choir’s own memory. Historical notes from the choir state that many women travelled from Ibadan for the recording, though only a smaller number eventually took part in the studio performance. This was not unusual for the era. Large choirs often had to reduce their number for technical recording purposes, especially when working in commercial studios with space and sound limits.
What matters most is that the 1979 session captured a song already alive in church practice and fixed it in recorded form. Once that happened, “Odun Nlo Sopin” could move beyond its immediate local setting and enter homes, church gatherings and the wider circulation of recorded gospel music.
Why the Song Endured
The power of “Odun Nlo Sopin” lies in its directness. It does not depend on elaborate metaphor or complicated poetry. It speaks plainly to a moment every worshipper understands, the end of one year and the uncertain beginning of another.
That moment carries deep religious meaning. The passing of a year invites memory, thanksgiving, fear, hope and prayer all at once. In many churches, the final weeks of the year are a season of spiritual stock taking. People remember what they survived, what they lost, what they prayed for and what they still hope to receive. “Odun Nlo Sopin” fits naturally into that atmosphere because it voices the need for divine preservation at a time of transition.
Its continued use also reflects the strength of Yoruba gospel tradition, where short choruses, repeated prayer lines and collective singing have long played an important role in worship. The song is easy for congregations to follow, easy to remember and easy to carry from one gathering to another. That simplicity helped its survival.
A Song of Church Life, Not Passing Fashion
Unlike many songs that rise and disappear with changing musical trends, “Odun Nlo Sopin” remained close to church life. It was not built around the celebrity image of a single performer, nor was it tied to one brief commercial moment. Its staying power came from repeated use in worship.
The C.A.C. Good Women Choir itself represented an older gospel tradition grounded in choral harmony, Yoruba language devotion and women’s collective ministry. Their style stood firmly within church culture, and that gave their music an endurance that did not depend on the shifting tastes of secular entertainment.
This is why the song has continued to return each year. It is not merely remembered as an old record. It is still recognised as a prayer song for a particular season of life. For many worshippers, hearing it means the year is winding down and the soul must begin to count its blessings, confess its burdens and prepare for another beginning.
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Deborah Fasoyin’s Place in Nigerian Gospel History
Deborah Fasoyin’s place in this history is secure because she stood at the centre of the recording that preserved the song for later generations. She led the choir that carried the chorus into the studio, expanded it and released it in a form that became enduringly familiar.
Her contribution was both musical and custodial. She did not simply perform a song. She helped transmit a worship tradition from congregational memory into recorded history. That is one reason her name remains inseparable from “Odun Nlo Sopin.”
In a country with many famous gospel releases, few songs have held their place so firmly within a recurring season of worship. “Odun Nlo Sopin” continues to resurface because it answers a need that returns every year, the need to close one chapter with prayer before stepping into the next. Through that 1979 recording, Deborah Fasoyin and the C.A.C. Good Women Choir gave that need a voice that has not faded.
Author’s Note
Some songs do more than survive, they settle into the yearly rhythm of a people’s faith. “Odun Nlo Sopin” endures because it speaks to a sacred threshold, the moment when one year ends and another begins, and it does so with the simplicity, humility and prayerful depth that define lasting church music. Deborah Fasoyin and the C.A.C. Good Women Choir did not merely make a memorable gospel recording, they preserved a worship tradition that continues to accompany many believers as they reflect on the year behind them and look toward the one ahead.
References
Punch, “I Nearly Fainted When I Was Chosen to Lead Good Women Choir,” 29 January 2017.
Punch, “I Didn’t Compose Odun Nlo Sopin, Deborah Fasoyin,” 3 January 2025.
Punch, “Why We Made Odun Nlo Sopin in Igbo, Hausa, Deborah Fasoyin,” 4 October 2020.
Pulse Nigeria, “The Story of the CAC Good Women Choir and the Evergreen Song,” 10 December 2017.
CAC Good Women Choir Ibadan, “Odun Nlo Sopin by Mrs D.A. Fasoyin.”
CAC Good Women Choir Ibadan, “Odun Nlo Sopin Album Story.”
The Native, “The Shuffle, ’Tis the Season for CAC Good Women Choir’s Odun Lo Sopin Classic,” 2 September 2019.
