Bezunesh Bekele

The first lady of Ethiopian music

Bezunesh Bekele, whom English Wikipedia titles Bizunesh Bekele and says should be referred to by her given name, sang soul and pop mostly in Amharic. MusicBrainz gives her birth as 1936 and her death as June 25, 1990, in Los Angeles, aged 54. Wikipedia says she was born in Harar, while an academic biography and music-service profiles say Dire Dawa, so we leave the birthplace open. She is not the long-distance runner of the same name. Nicknames include the Aretha Franklin of Ethiopia, the Mariam Makeba of Ethiopia and the First Lady of Addis Ababa; NTS describes her as often called the first lady of Ethiopian music.

An academic abstract by Timkehet Teffera Mekonnen says she sang in a missionary church choir, and in 1955 moved to Addis Ababa and joined the music department of the Imperial Bodyguard Band as a vocalist. She sang with Kebur Zabagna and later the Dahlak Band, hosted the entertainment program Tikil Radio in 1957, and sometimes performed with Mahmoud Ahmed. A 1969 interview noted she had not yet released albums. Her recordings are a run of seven-inch singles on Philips in 1972 and 1974, among them "Min Bedelkut Minew", "Addis Fikir" and "Kentu Siga", then Kaifa Records in 1977, where the Dahlak Band backed "Bayn Yemitay Idil" and "Tigle New", composed and arranged by Tezera H. Michael, and "Atrakegne".

Her songs appear on the Buda Musique compilation Ethiopiques 13: Ethiopian Groove, the Golden Seventies, with "Atraqegn" and "Tegel New"; the release year is variously given as 1994, 2002, 2003 and 2004. Other compilations include The Other Side of Summer (Mississippi Records, 2010), Ethiopian Melodies (Paxico, 2017) and Taitu (2018). AllMusic called "Atraqègn" a classic and described her as Aster Aweke's forerunner. NTS's In Focus episode of July 31, 2019 ends with a recording labeled her final live performance, Los Angeles, May 11, 1990. Wikipedia names her songs "Chenk Tibeb" and "Ayasayegn Chinkun".