Alemayehu Eshete

The Abyssinian Elvis

Alemayehu Eshete Andarge was born in June 1941 in Addis Ababa, according to the Boston Globe and Wikipedia, though some sources give Jimma. He sang hymns at the Christian Training Institute, and around 1963 he decided to quit school and become a singer after skipping school to watch Elvis films. Colonel Retta Demeqe invited him to join Addis Ababa's Police Orchestra. His first hit was "Seul" in 1961 by Music in Africa's account, which sits awkwardly with the 1963 date; in 1969 he recorded "Timarkyalesh" with Amha Eshete, no relation, of Amha Records, a hit pressed in India. He made roughly thirty singles between 1969 and 1974. He sang mainly in Amharic and wrote socially conscious songs such as "Temar Lije", which promotes education. In a 2010 interview he said he was not especially proud of the Elvis nickname because his style had changed.

He fronted the Police Orchestra, the All Star Band (recordings of 1971 and 1972), the Alem-Girma Band (1973 and 1974, co-founded with the pianist-arranger Girma Beyene) and later the Wallias Band on his 1992 album. After the Derg overthrew the empire in 1974 the scene declined, and he stayed in Ethiopia singing patriotic songs at state events. Francis Falceto's Ethiopiques series on Buda Musique reissued his work: volume 9 (2000 or 2001), volume 22 (September 24, 2007), with tracks on volumes 3, 8, 10 and 13. PopMatters's Deanne Sole wrote that the way he uses his voice sometimes suggests that Elvis would have sounded better in Amharic.

In 2008 he toured the US with Mahmoud Ahmed backed by Boston's Either/Orchestra, and played London, Glastonbury and Lincoln Center in New York. He died in a hospital in Addis Ababa on September 2, 2021, aged 80, and the funeral at Meskel Square drew large crowds, with "Temar Lije" and "Addis Ababa Bete" played. Falceto called him an icon of that era.