[1] It was made popular by Alhaja Batile Alake from Ijebu, who took the genre into the mainstream Nigerian music by playing it at concerts and parties; also, she was the first waka singer to record an album.
In 1992, Salawa Abeni was crowned "Queen of Waka" by the Alafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi.
In later days, 90s to be precise, a lot more Musicians with the Quranic front came on board and one to stand out is El-hadj wasiu Kayode Sideeq and his wife hajia Hafsat Sideeq, He is now popularly known as BabaNwaka(father of waka) with the music being islam centered as far back as the times of trade between Mali empire of Mansa Musa of Timbuktu and the Southwestern region of Nigeria, whereby, they brought Islam to the Yorubas from Mali.
"Waka Music," in Daily Life of Women: An Encyclopedia from Ancient Times to the Present, eds.
Colleen Boyett, H. Micheal Tarver & Mildred Diane Gleason (Bloomsbury Publishing).