Grace Matata | |
|---|---|
 Matata at the IWD2019 | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | Dar es Salaam, Tanzania |
| Genres | |
| Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter |
| Years active | 2010–present |
| Labels |
|
Grace Matata is a Tanzanian afro-soul singer. She released her debut album Nyakati in 2013.
Matata writes and performs music that is 'a unique blend of Swahili soul, R&B, and jazz.' Her career began in 2010 when she signed with the record label Music Lab (M-Lab)/Media Kings and released the singles "WIMBO" and "Freesoul." [1] [2] The former song was nominated for a Teen Extra Award that year.
Matata released her first album, titled Nyakati (meaning 'times' in Swahili), in 2013 to critical acclaim. An active part of the Dar es Salaam and East African music scene, she released a series of singles between 2015 and 2019 and was nominated for a 2015 Kilimanjaro Music Award. [2] [3]
Following her success, Matata signed a deal with Tanzanian management company Panamusiq in 2017. [2] In 2020, she began working with the Dar es Salaam-based a talent management and entertainment company Stargaze Management. [4]
In 2020, she released her EP Rebirth.
Matata is an ambassador for UNICEF Tanzania; for World Children's Day in 2018, she released a song with the organization called "Baby." [5]
Adapted from Apple Music. [3]
Albums
Singles
As it is in other countries, the music in Tanzania is constantly undergoing changes, and varies by location, people, settings and occasion. The five music genres in Tanzania, as defined by BASATA are, ngoma, dansi, kwaya, and taarab, with bongo flava being added in 2001. Singeli has since the mid-2000s been an unofficial music of uswahilini, unplanned communities in Dar es Salaam, and is the newest mainstream genre since 2020.
Bongo Flava is a nickname for Tanzanian music. The genre developed in the 1990s, mainly as a derivative of American hip hop and traditional Tanzanian styles such as taarab and dansi, with additional influences from reggae, R&B, and afrobeats, to form a unique style of music. Lyrics are usually in Swahili or English, although increasingly from mid 2000s there has been limited use of words from Sub-Saharan African music traditions due to the influence of Afrobeats and Kwaito with their dynamics usage of West African Pidgin English, Nigerian Pidgin or other Creole language.
Tanzanian Hip-hop, which is sometimes referred to Bongo Flava by many outside of Tanzania's hip hop community, encompasses a large variety of different sounds, but it is particularly known for heavy synth riffs and an incorporation of Tanzanian pop.
Following Tanganyika's independence (1961) and unification with Zanzibar (1964), leading to the formation of the state of Tanzania, President Julius Nyerere emphasised a need to construct a national identity for the citizens of the new country. To achieve this, Nyerere provided what has been regarded by some commentators as one of the most successful cases of ethnic repression and identity transformation in Africa.
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