Madingo Afework’s Last Album, Ashara (አሻራ), Is Out With Nine New Songs

Ashara (አሻራ), the album of new songs that Madingo Afework (ማዲንጎ አፈወርቅ) recorded before his death in 2022, is now out. His official YouTube channel posted all nine songs as lyric videos on Friday, October 30, and Apple Music lists the album with an October 31 release date.

The opening song, Astemriw Liben (አስተምሪው ልቤን), had more than 1.1 million views on YouTube by Tuesday morning. Amalay (አማላይ) was second, with about 786,000 views.

Nine Songs, Not Twelve

In September, The Reporter, the Addis Ababa newspaper, said the album would hold 11 to 12 songs that the public had never heard. The album that came out has nine. The video descriptions do not say whether more songs will follow.

Ashara is an Amharic word for a mark or a fingerprint. The cover carries the words “A Legacy. A Voice. Forever.” It also calls the album Vol. 4 and shows the years 2019 and 2026, the current year in the Ethiopian and the Gregorian calendars. Madingo made three studio albums in his lifetime: Siyame Atahulat, Ayderegim and Swedlat.

The nine songs, in the order the channel numbers them, are:

1. Astemriw Liben (አስተምሪው ልቤን)
2. Yehilina Dagnetshn (የህሊና ዳኝነትሽን)
3. Beyilugnta (በይሉኝታ)
4. Dire (ድሬ)
5. Yeselamtaye (የሰላምታዬ)
6. Altenkuakuam Bere (አልተንኳኳም በሬ)
7. Amalay (አማላይ)
8. Sinedegn Sinedegn (ሲነደኝ ሲነደኝ)
9. Enat (እናት)

Who Wrote and Played the Songs

The Amharic credits under each video name the people behind the music. Fanta Wechefo (ፈንታ ወጨፎ) wrote the words and the melody for five songs, including the opening track and Enat. He also wrote the melody of Amalay, which has words by Yilma Gebreab (ይልማ ገ/አብ).

Abebe Birhane (አበበ ብርሀኔ) wrote Altenkuakuam Bere. Mekonnen Lema (መኮንን ለማ), who is known as Doctere, wrote, arranged and mixed Sinedegn Sinedegn. The melody of Beyilugnta is credited to Abudi (አቡዲ).

Michael Hailu arranged, recorded and mixed five of the songs. Addis Fikadu (አዲስ ፍቃዱ) did the same work on Beyilugnta, Altenkuakuam Bere and Enat. Zerihun Belete (ዘሪሁን በለጠ) plays saxophone on two songs, and Kibret Zekiyos (ክብረት ዘኪዎስ) mastered all nine. On Beyilugnta, the credits also name Luwam Mehari (ሉዋም መሀሪ) on bass guitar and Sebhat Endale (ስብሀት እንዳለ) on lead guitar.

The album cover gives a longer list of writers. It names Madingo himself and Solomon Kinde, known as Solomonick, but it does not say which songs they wrote.

Four Years of Work

Madingo died in Addis Ababa on September 27, 2022, at the age of 44. His longtime manager, Zelalem Mekuria, is named on the cover as the project manager. Geez Creative handles the digital distribution.

His team completed the unfinished songs from the studio recordings, Zelalem told The Reporter in September. “We moved from studio to studio to study the works he had started,” he said, adding that the team also asked music experts for advice before it finished the album.

The new songs come one week after the channel posted his older albums. On October 24 and 25, it put up lyric videos from Swedlat and visualizers from Siyame Atahulat, his first album.