Contemporary Music Scene of Ethiopia

Alemayehu Eshete, is an important present-day Ethiopia singer, the most famous musicians from the Ethiopia are Los Angeles and Afro.

source of picture: www.worldmusic.net

One of the biggest new current, however, has been the rise of bole, a sort of blues that is like the music played by the sarcastic azmari playing in parts of Addis Ababa especially Yohannes Sefer and the Kazentchis, Bolel musicians includes the Tigist Assefa, Tedje and Abate. Recently the most important Ethiopian singer internationally is Gigi, through her performance with the prominent jazz musicians like Bill Laswell (who is also her husband) and Herbie Hancock, Gigi has brought the Ethiopia music to be famous to gain attention, especially in the United States, where she now lives.

Another notable singer is Neway Debebe, who was very famous among the youth of the 1980 and the early 1990 with  a songs like Yetekemt Abeba, Metekatun  Ateye, Safsaf and Gedam among others also Abatte Barihun has instance for  all the four main qenets on his 2005 album Ras Deshen.

Ethiopiques producer Francis falceto condemn the current Ethiopian music for the eschewing traditional instruments and band playing in favor of one  man bands, using synthesizers. In the West, many bands were also established in the recent years to play music inspired by the Ethiopiques series and other examples of Ethiopian music of the 60s and 70, they also include either Orchestra (United States), Imperial Tiger Orchestra (Switzerland) and Le Tigre des platanes (France).