Summary
During the summer holidays, the AfricaMuseum invites you to a tribute concert in honour of Papa Wemba (1949-2016). Chibida, Chabrown Lysha, Costa Pinto, Jordan, Toms Ntale, HBass, Merdie, Hewa Bora et Sandy Bakomi present the musical project ‘Dans la peau de Papa Wemba’ to stand in the shoes of the great musician.
Who is Papa Wemba?
The Congolese singer, songwriter and actor Jules Shungu Wembadio Pene Kikumba, aka Papa Wemba, was born in 1949 in Lubefu, Belgian Congo (now the province of Sankuru, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo) and died in 2016 in Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire) after falling ill on stage. The co-founder and manager of the label Viva la Musica, he recruited and trained Congolese and African music stars such as King Kester Emeneya and Awilo Longomba.
Considered one of the legends of Congolese and African music, his career spanned nearly fifty years. While Papa Wemba did not invent Congolese rumba, he was a pillar of the genre and one of the few artists to propel it to the international scene. He was also involved in the early days of soukous, and would also explore rock, ndombolo, and other world music styles. Rumba would nonetheless remain his signature genre.
He joined the group Zaïko Langa Langa in 1969 and left it five years later to create Isifi Lokolé, then Yoka lokole. In 1977 he founded the band Viva La Musica.
In the late 1970s, he was one of the fashion icons of the SAPE movement.
After Tabu Ley Rochereau, Papa Wemba became the second Congolese artist to sign with an international record label, Peter Gabriel’s Real World, under which he would release three albums: Le Voyageur (1992), Émotion (1995), and Molokaï (1998).
In 1980, Analengo became his first pan-African hit. After moving to France in 1986, he made his first screen appearance in La vie est belle. His fame spread to the United States in 1989 when he toured with the revue Africa Oyé. In 1999, Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci chose two of his songs, Maria Valencia and Le Voyageur, for the film Paradiso e inferno.
