Collaborations between prominent musical artists are famously hit-or-miss. While you might end up with the brilliance of The Velvet Underground and Nico, you could just as easily be faced with the terrifying reality of ‘Dancing In the Street’ by Mick Jagger and David Bowie. Fortunately, this was not a concern that plagued Aselefech Ashine and Getenesh Kebret, two of the finest singers to ever hail from Ethiopia, upon their seminal collaboration in 1976.
Ethiopia is not usually noted for its musical output, with the vast majority of discourse surrounding the incredibly broad landscape of ‘African music’ centring around West African nations such as Nigeria or Ghana. However, with one of the largest populations across the continent, the incredible range of art produced by the country is almost an inevitability. The ‘Golden Age’ of Ethiopian music occurred in the period between the 1960s and 1970s, witnessing the rise of countless incredible artists, usually focusing on folk styles and traditional Ethiopian rhythms, with some Western influences too.
Of that vibrant Golden Age, the unforgettable tones of vocalists Aselefech Ashine and Getenesh Kebret are undoubtedly one of the greatest exports. Both were raised in the capital city of Addis Ababa, and they first encountered each other at the Hager Fikr Theatre, a beacon for art and culture in the East African nation. The pair were trained together in theatre and traditional vocal performance. In 1976, the pair embarked upon a collaborative album that would go down in history as one of the great Ethiopian albums of all time.
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