Tag: congo

Music from Canada/ Congo DR – Pierre Kwenders // World Music

Pierre Kwenders, born in Kinshasa in 1985, now living in Canada, is a singer best known for his modern world music mixed with electro, pop and rumba elements. Listen to his amazing song “Mardi gras”:

Found this here

Music from Congo DR – Lumio

Born as Charles Bofossa, better known by his stage name, Lumino, is a Congolese (DRC) artist/songwriter and Record Producer. His sounds are really wonderful and his wonderful voice fits perfectly to his gospel songs and ballads. Have a listen to “Beyond all”:

Music from Congo DR – Wendo Kolosoy

Antoine Wendo Kolosoy (April 25, 1925 – July 28, 2008), known as Papa Wendo, was a Congolese musician. He was considered the “Father” of Congolese rumba music, a musical style blending rumba, beguine, waltz, tango and cha-cha.

Wendo was born in 1925 in Mushie territory, Mai-Ndombe District of western Congo, then under Belgian colonial rule. His father died when he was seven, and his mother, a singer herself, died shortly thereafter. He was taken to live in an orphanage run by the Society of the Missionaries of Africa, and remained there until he was 12 or 13, expelled when the fathers disapproved of the lyrics of his songs. Wendo began playing guitar and performing at age 11.

Kolosoy became a professional singer almost by chance after having worked also as a boxer, sailor and longshoreman in Congo, Cameroon and Senegal. From 13 Wendo traveled as a worker on the Congo River ferries, and entertained passengers on the long trips. Between 1941 and 1946 he traveled as a sometime professional boxer, as far from home as Dakar, Senegal. Here´s his song “Camille “

Music from DR Congo – Nico Kasanda

Nico Kasanda, born in 1939 in Belgian Congo, was a pioneer of soukous music. He’s also known as Docteur Nico. In the young age of 14, he started playing in the group ‘Le Grand Kallé et l’African Jazz’ and became an influential guitarist, as a  meeting with Jimi Hendrix shows. He already died in 1985 in Belgium. Listen to his piece “Zadio”:

Music from DR Cogo – Tabu Ley Rochereau

Tabu Ley Rochereau, born in 1940, is a musician from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He’s well known for internationalising his african rumba and soukous music, together with Dr Nico Kasanda. Listen to his nice piece “Mokolo Nakokufa”:

Music from DR Congo – Kaysha

Kaysha, born in Kinshasa 1974, is a pop, R&B and rap musician who immigrated to France. He already won some awards, e.g. the Kora Award for the best African artist in 2000. Here’s his song “Si tu veux de moi”:

Music from Senegal? – Fitt Band Experience

Updated song:

A great one this afternoon, although I can’t find anything about them. But in their song “Maaro“, Fitt Band Experience, a reggae gruop, are singing about Africa and it’s political leaders(e.g. Thomas Sankara, Lumumba), problems and politics. If you know more about this excellent group, please contact me! And the YouTube video is 2 minutes too long… ;)

Maaro seems to be off, so listen to their song “Lazi”:

Music from Congo DR – Staff Benda Bilili

Updated song:

Staff Benda Bilili are a group of Congolese street musicians living around the grounds of the zoo in Kinshasa, and playing music which is rooted in rumba, with elements of old-school rhythm’n’blues and reggae. The core of the band consists of four senior singers/guitarist, who are all disabled (they suffered from poliomyelitis when they were young) and move around in spectacularly customized tricycles. I made the album Tres Tres Fort as a christmas gift for my mother, so I couldn’t post this earlier, and here’s the song “Moto Moindo“:

This was a Music-Suggestion from Zdenko!