( Alèmayehu Eshété )

The Alèmayèhu Eshètè songs already presented in Ethipiques 3 and 8 have given a foretaste of this outstanding stylist of Ethiopian pop. The singer, as remarkable for his frenetic rock numbers as for his heartrending ballads, has, by dint of rampant Americanism, earned himself nicknames as the Ethiopian James Brown or the Abyssinian Elvis. WIth his dazzling stage presence, nimble voicebox and wicked pompadour, he is a strutting show-off, straight out of American Graffiti or Saturday Night Fever. His youthfulness untarnished although he is well into his 50s, Alèmayèhu still represents the explosive myths of the 1960s.