Bitsat Seyum and Tesfaye Gebrehana receive an incredible surprise programme from artist Haregewein Assef. It was difficult for them both. Ethiopia’s capital city of Addis Abeba is home to Bitsat Seyoum. She started attending “Felege Yordanos Elementary School” when she was four years old and later attended “Shemeles Habte Secondary School.”She has always enjoyed singing, and many of her friends have pushed her to perform. As a result of a series of events, Bitsat found herself starting her singing career in a “Azmari Bet” (a customary setting where musicians perform traditional Ethiopian music alongside dancers and instrumentalists).
Many people became aware of her music, and soon she was performing all over the world. Bitsat started to record her songs and worked with all the famous musicians of the day. Mulatu Astatke, sometimes known as “the father,”of EthioJazz) arranged the music for her first cassette recording.
She performed and recorded her work with musicians and composers including Tilahun Gessesse, Gultu Tefera, Teddy Afro, Moges Teka, Mulugeta Tesfaye, Yelema Gebreabe, and many others, as well as masters of the Amharic lyrical form known as “Wax and Gold” (traditional poetry with double meaning).
She established the lucrative nightclub BITSAT in Addis Abeba and rose to fame for her clever and deft improvisations of the “Wax and Gold poetry.”
