Traditional music and dance
There are probably as many musical and choreographic traditions in Ethiopia as there are peoples. For example, among the Tigrayans in the north, dance is gentle, circular and characterized by shoulder and neck movements, while among the Amhara in central Ethiopia, gestures are centralized in the upper body and neck. Among the Oromo, in central and southern Ethiopia, movements are characterized by hopping, using the whole body, while among the Guragé, dance appears as an acrobatic practice.
Fun fact: a traditional Ethiopian dance recently went viral on social networks. Aptly translated as "dancing shoulders",eskista is a dance from the northern regions of Ethiopia - more specifically from the Amhara ethnic group - characterized by intense, sudden movements of the shoulders, chest and neck, all rolling and bouncing. Originally accompanied by traditional music, it has gradually been rediscovered by younger generations, who dance to electronic music or contemporary tunes and appreciate the complex and particularly impressive nature of its movements.
Other traditional practices associated with a particular region include the manzuma, a Muslim musical form from the northeastern lowlands. Traditionally performed by ulemas, Muslim religious scholars, this song, characterized by male choral harmonies and generally accompanied by hand-clapping and Ethiopian drums, is used for group prayers, entertainment, teaching Islam, and even to chase away demons.
Another tradition linked to faith is that the entire Orthodox liturgy is sung in Ethiopia, and this musical expression is called zema.
Not surprisingly, Ethiopia boasts many unique instruments. Starting with the krar, the lyre's six-string cousin - not to be confused with the begena, a large ten-string lyre - often played by azmaris. Azmaris are Ethiopian bards, highly respected itinerant musicians, both male and female, improvising lyrics to the sound of the krar. It's interesting to note that attending an azmari performance is easy, since the best of these singers perform every evening in the Kazanchis district of Addis Ababa. Otherwise, it's well worth checking out the works of the "queen of the krar", Asnatqètch Wèrqu, a legendary figure on the instrument, or Kassa Tessema, loved as much for his lyrics as his handling of the instrument.
Another emblematic instrument, the masinko, is a kind of single-string violin used in many parts of the country, notably by the Amhara, Tigrayan and Oromo peoples. Very widespread, it is one of the country's most important traditional instruments. The masinko has had a number of masters, including Getamessay Abebe, Legesse Abdi, Adane Teka and Alemayehu Fanta.
Also very common are the washint, a bamboo flute (typically played by Ethiopian shepherds), the malakat, which resembles a trumpet, the toom, a lamellophone used by the Nuer, Anuak, Majangir and Surma peoples among others, and the kebero, an Ethiopian drum.
Traditional music and dance are alive and well in Ethiopia. As a result, they are easily visible on stage, mainly in the capital and the tourist towns of Bahir Dar and Gondar. In Addis Ababa, Yod Abyssinia, 2000 Habesha and Fendika (the city's must-seeazmari bet ) are among the most famous stages. In Bahar Dar, the Checheo Cultural Restaurant offers nightly performances of traditional song and dance, accompanied by tedj, the Ethiopian mead.
In addition to these excellent addresses, the Ethiopian New Year(enkutatash), which takes place on September 11, is the occasion for numerous performances of traditional dance and music.
Popular music
In the 1980s, Ethiopia came under the control of the Derg, who imposed iron-fisted censorship. Among the musicians of this period, Neway Debebe is by far the most popular. His popularity was partly due to the use of a poetic form of double entendre in his lyrics, enabling him to criticize the government without attracting the attention - and the wrath - of those in power.
While Debebe has remained, the regime has driven major local stars such as Aster Aweké and Gigi into exile. The former, Aster Aweké, is sometimes dubbed "Africa's Aretha Franklin" and has found success by combining traditional sounds with pop. She lived and worked in the USA, before returning to her native country in 2009. Her album Ebo (1993) remains a must-have.
A similar story is told by Gigi (born Ejigayehu Shibabaw), famous for her blend of pop and Ethiopian music (with a very different result from Aster Aweké's music) and forced for a time to live and work outside her country. Her best-known album, Gigi, released in 2001, featured contributions from monsters such as Herbie Hancock, Pharoah Sanders and Wayne Shorter.
Today, it's undoubtedly Tewodros Kassahun, better known as Teddy Afro, who is the most popular artist. He owes his fame largely to his dissident lyrics, in which he denounces the powers that be. Equally popular is Fikeraddis, who has been a fixture on the Ethiopian music scene for over twenty years. Album after album, she remains appreciated for her blend of sounds and rhythms from northern and southern Ethiopia.
Ethio-jazz
As music fans know, Ethiopia is a land apart in the field, thanks in no small part to its sublime post-war ethio-jazz scene. To fully understand the genesis of the genre, we need to go back to the 1940s, when a prominent member of the small local Armenian community turned Ethiopian music on its head. His name was Nersès Nalbandian, the nephew of Kevork Nalbandian (conductor and composer of the Ethiopian national anthem, in use from 1925 to 1974), and his talent led him to head the great local orchestras such as the Imperial Guard, the Police Orchestra and the Addis Ababa Municipal Orchestra. It was in these various positions that he gradually integrated the traditional, instrumental and stylistic foundations of Ethiopian music with the codes of Western classical and jazz. Without realizing it, he laid the foundations for a totally new genre that was to have an impact on all Ethiopian creation over the coming decades: ethio-jazz.
Technically, ethio-jazz is a skilful blend of azmari music, mixed with swing and jazz and carried by tezeta(meaning "nostalgia"), a kind of Ethiopian blues - or saudade. The result is as splendid as it is melancholy.
While this blend was slowly infusing Ethiopian musical creation, a percussionist trained in London and the United States returned to Ethiopia in the late 1960s, bringing with him influences from jazz and Latin music. This was Mulatu Astatke, the true father of ethio-jazz, who gave the genre its first works (notably Mulatu of Ethiopia from 1972, an album that collectors are now snapping up at a premium). A pioneer who didn't really taste international success until the 2000s, after some of his key tracks appeared on the soundtrack of Jim Jarmush's film Broken Flowers (2005), bringing him international attention.
The other major event that helped the world discover (albeit belatedly) ethio-jazz was the work done in the late 1990s by the French independent label Buda Musique and Francis Falceto, who reissued the greatest voices of ethio-jazz via the "Éthiopiques" collection, including Mahmoud Ahmed, the other father of the genre (and one of the country's first artists to gain international recognition with his 1975 album Erè mèla mèla ), the fabulous saxophonist Getachew Mekurya, Tilahun Gessesse, nicknamed "The Voice" for his velvety tenor voice, Alemayehu Eshete, Ethiopia's James Brown, Tesfa-Maryam Kidane and the diva Bizunesh Bekele.
Also featured in the "Éthiopiques" collection, Emahoy Tsegué-Mariam Gebru is one of those little-known jewels of music history that you'll thank us a thousand times over for introducing you to. Imagine an Ethiopian nun, the ethio-jazz equivalent of Erik Satie or Debussy, and you have the incredible work of Emahoy Tsegué-Mariam Gebru. She died in 2023 at the age of almost one hundred, and her timeless music, which is gradually being rediscovered, deserves, like its author, to enjoy an immense longevity.
Let's also mention Hailu Mergia, another star of ethio-jazz, who found a second life late in his career, not thanks to "Éthiopiques", but to the excellent American label Awesome Tapes from Africa. Trained on accordion and keyboard, he was part of the splendor of Addis Ababa nights in the 1960s and 1970s, before fleeing to the United States during the Derg regime. Forced to give up music, he became a cab driver in Washington for twenty years before the owner of Awesome Tapes from Africa discovered him and reissued his early works. An immediate success, Hailu Mergia rose from the ashes and returned to composing. In 2018, he released Lalu Belu, a dreamy, melancholy album that proves that talents like his never stay silent.
The ethio-jazz scene is alive and well, and the capital has no shortage of stages on which to enjoy a concert. Since the Jazzamba fire, the best club in town is The African Jazz Village, founded by the great Mulatu Astatké. Housed in the Hotel Ghion, it organizes concerts on a regular basis and, if you're lucky, you'll even see Mulatu perform in person. A must. Alternatively, the Royal Lounge, the latest trendy venue in town, offers ethio-jazz concerts every Friday from 10pm.
Contemporary music
Given Ethiopians' love of music, you'd expect the young local scene to be vibrant. Among the best-known bands are Jano Band, a group that mixes progressive rock with Ethiopian sounds; Teddy Yo and Lij Michael, two of the most influential artists on the local hip-hop scene (often written in Amharic); and Dawit Eklund, Mikael Seifu and Endeguena Mulu, a trio that has successfully blended electronic, jazz and East African folklore to produce a result they call "Ethiopiyawi Electronic".
For live music, we can only recommend Mama's Kitchen, a gastro-fusion restaurant and chic live music club, as well as Club H20. The Jano Band plays there regularly.
The Ethiopian diaspora also includes some prominent members. By far the best known is The Weeknd, now performing under his birth name Abel Makkonen Tesfaye. His music may have little to do with Ethiopian jazz, but his style is steeped in Ethiopia. In fact, many observers have noted that her singing style follows in the footsteps of the great Aster Aweke and, more generally, that her characteristic vibrato is directly inspired by Ethiopian music.
Ever closer to his roots, Abel Tesfaye donated C$50,000 in 2014 to the University of Toronto to fund a new course in Guez, a classical Ethiopian language, and in 2016, another C$50,000, this time to Toronto's Tewahedo St. Mary Ethiopian Orthodox Church, which he attended as a child. More recently, in 2021, Tesfaye this time donated US$1 million to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to support relief efforts in Ethiopia following the Tigray War. Far from the eyes, but not far from the heart, Abel Tesfaye cultivates a strong and permanent link with his origins.
