Alemayehu Eshete

Alemayehu Eshete (Amharic: ዓለማየሁ እሸቴ; June 1941 – 2 September 2021) was an Ethiopian singer. He performed since the 1960s and primarily in Amharic. He had been nicknamed "the Ethiopian Elvis".
Eshete's talent was recognized by Colonel Retta Demeqe, who invited the young singer to perform with Addis Ababa famous Police Orchestra. He had his first hit "Seul" in 1961 before moving on to found the Alem-Girma Band with Girma Beyene. Over the course of 15 years, Eshete released some 30 singles until the arrival of the communist junta Derg.
Eshete gained fame in Europe and the Americas with the release of Buda Musique's Ethiopiques series of compilations on compact disc. Ethiopiques Volume 9 is devoted entirely to recordings of his earlier music, and Volume 22 covers his career between 1972 and 1974. Other songs have also appeared on Volumes 3, 8, 10, and 13 or the series. In 2008, Eshete toured the United States with fellow Ethiopian singer Mahmoud Ahmed, backed by Boston's 10-piece Either/Orchestra.
Eshete died at midnight of 2 September 2021 in a hospital located in Addis Ababa. He was spending days with his friends and complained about discomfort after going home on 7 a.m (in local time). Some sources indicate that he had been in poor health due to heart disease.
==Links to Peel==
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Peel played some Ethiopian tracks in the 70's on his shows, especially from artists such as Alemayehu Eshete. However, after the 70's, it doesn't seem Peel played any further material from the singer.
In 1994, Peel was featured in a magazine called The Wire, which had a feature called Invisible Jukebox section, where every month, a music journalist, who in this case was Dave Morrison, would play a celebrity a series of records which they were asked to identify and comment on - with no prior knowledge of what they were about to hear. 
When Alemayehu's Tashamanaletch track was played, Peel instinctively knew that it was Ethiopian and mentioned that he got a bunch of Ethiopian 7" singles about 15 years ago and could recognise the style. However, he couldn't recognise the artist but thought Andy Kershaw may know.
==Shows Played==
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*15 October 1974Page 352 under the section of 17th October 1984 in the Good Night And Good Riddance book, where the author describes what was played on Peel's show ten years ago.: unknown
==External Links==
*Wikipedia
*Discogs
==References==
Category:Artists