Madingo Afework’s Final Album Is Due This Month, Four Years After His Death

Holy Trinity Cathedral in Addis Ababa, where Madingo Afework was buried in September 2022, photographed in November 2007 (A. Davey / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0) [file photo]

Four years after the death of Madingo Afework, his last recordings are close to reaching the public. The Reporter, the Addis Ababa newspaper, reported in September that an album of new songs by the Gondar-born singer is planned for release by the end of Meskerem 2019 in the Ethiopian calendar. That date falls on October 10, 2026.

The news carries special weight because the album is not a collection of old hits. According to The Reporter, it holds 11 to 12 entirely new songs that fans have never heard. Madingo recorded his vocals for them before he died in Addis Ababa on September 27, 2022. He was 44 years old.

A Project He Planned for Years

The Reporter confirmed the plan with the singer’s family legal representatives, the event organizers, and his long-time production manager, Zelalem Mekuria. Zelalem served as Madingo’s manager from the time of his first album, Siyame Atahulat, at the end of the 1990s.

“The launching day is in Meskerem,” Zelalem told the newspaper. “While we cannot disclose the exact date just yet, it is slated for release by the end of the month at the very latest.”

The Reporter said Madingo spent years on the project before his death. He wrote, researched, and chose the material with great care. When he died, the work was not finished. His team had to save the raw studio tracks and join them into one album.

“After Madingo passed away, we started working on it since we knew all of the projects and research he had been working on,” Zelalem said. “We moved from studio to studio to study the works he had started. We consulted with several music experts, collected all of his recorded material, and finally brought the album to completion.”

He also explained why the work took so long. Madingo kept detailed research for each song, and the team struggled to locate all of it. The singer’s voice and words could not be changed, because he was no longer alive to sing any line again. So the team focused on the melodies and the sound. They upgraded the original MP3 files to WAV, a higher quality audio format, and built the instrumental parts again from the beginning.

“Finalizing an album after an artist has passed away is exceptionally difficult,” Zelalem said.

Familiar Names Behind the Songs

The album brings together writers and musicians who are well known in Ethiopian music. The Reporter named Fanta Wechefa, Yilma Gebreab, Abebe Berhane, and Mekonnen Lema, who is also known as Doctre, as the writers of the lyrics and melodies. Mikky Jano, Doctre, Addis Fikadu, and the saxophone player Zerihun Belete arranged the music.

Kibret Zekiyos did the first mastering, which is the final technical step that prepares a recording for release. A second engineer, named only as Kirubel, did the final mastering. A group of well-known Ethiopian singers added backing vocals.

Some of these names connect the new album to Madingo’s earlier work. On the music service Deezer, the listing for his 2015 album Swedlat credits songs to Yilma Gebreab, Fanta Wechefa, and Mekonnen Lema, among other writers.

The album will not be sold as CDs or in any other physical form. The Reporter said it will appear directly on Madingo’s official YouTube channel, which his daughter, Dibora Madingo, manages. The Reporter described Dibora as his only heir. She coordinates the project to protect her father’s legacy. An official launch event will mark the release. By Wednesday, the organizers had not made the date or place of that event public, and the new songs had not appeared on YouTube channels in his name.

“We understand it took us a bit longer to release Madingo’s album, but it was due to the sheer volume of unfinished technical work,” Zelalem told The Reporter. “Madingo’s audiences have been eagerly awaiting his last voice.”

From a Garrison Band to the National Stage

Madingo was born Tegene Afework in Azezo, in the Gondar area, in 1978. His family later moved to Debre Tabor so he could go to school. A 2015 artist profile on the Music In Africa website said his childhood heroes were the singers Ephrem Tamiru, Muluken Melesse, and Elias Tebabel. He copied their songs so well that people around him praised him while he was still a boy.

The same profile says he was only ten years old when he left home for a nearby military garrison, drawn by its music. He sang with the military band there. The soldiers gave him the name Madingo, and it stayed with him for the rest of his life. As a teenager he moved to Addis Ababa and joined the Zema Lastas band. He sang well-known songs in night clubs, and producers soon noticed his voice.

His first album was Siyame Atahulat. Its title song and “Aman New Woy Goraw” became instant hits, according to the Music In Africa profile. His second album, Ayderegim, followed in 2005. After a long gap, he released Swedlat in January 2015. Deezer lists 14 songs on that album, including “Tangut,” “Wusejat,” and “Welo Menen.” That July, organizers held a Swedlat album concert at Laphto Mall in Addis Ababa, according to a listing on the Ethio Beauty website.

Video: the official music video for “Swedlat,” the title song of Madingo Afework’s 2015 album, posted in January 2026 on the MadingoAfeworkVEVO YouTube channel as “Siwedelat.”

He was also known for his skill with “Tizita,” the classic song of memory and longing. The Music In Africa profile says he once sang it in three different ways, each in the style of a different singer, on a single release. He followed each style so closely that listeners found it hard to tell his version from the original.

The profile adds that the Ethiopian Musicians Association chose him as one of the young singers for an event during the Ethiopian Millennium celebrations. It says he stood first and received a medal from President Girma Wolde-Giorgis. Fana Broadcasting Corporation, a media company in Addis Ababa, said in 2022 that his career lasted close to three decades.

A Farewell and a Long Wait

His death in September 2022 came suddenly. Two days later, thousands of people gathered at Friendship Square in Addis Ababa for a farewell ceremony, according to Fana. Artists, public figures, family members, and fans attended. Addis Ababa Mayor Adanech Abebe praised his part in the growth of the music industry. He was buried at Holy Trinity Cathedral in the capital.

His older songs still draw large audiences online. Since late 2025, a YouTube channel in his name has posted official lyric videos for his past songs. One of them, “Mognu Libe,” had more than 1.6 million views this week. The official music video for “Swedlat,” posted in January on the MadingoAfeworkVEVO channel, had more than one million views.

The coming release will be different, because it will bring songs that no listener has heard before. The Reporter described them as the singer’s final recordings. Zelalem said the team is sure that the result will honor Madingo’s place in Ethiopian music.

“We are fully confident that music lovers across the country will find this final piece to be a masterpiece,” he said.