SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
The music artist Meklit Hadero has lived in the U.S. since she left Ethiopia decades ago.
(SOUNDBITE OF MEKLIT HADERO SONG, "LEFEQER ENEGEZA")
MEKLIT HADERO: After the Ethiopian Revolution, there were years of political turmoil. You know, many people who are in a place where they feel they have to leave their home country - it's because the ground starts to shake under you in a way that feels completely unmanageable. And that's what happened with our family, and that's why we left.
SIMON: Meklit Hadero is now releasing an album that celebrates Ethiopian music.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LEFEQER ENEGEZA")
HADERO: (Singing in non-English language).
We came to the United States when I was very young - just about 2 years old. We were refugees, and we landed in Washington, D.C. And then my dad's college professor lived in Iowa at the time, and we didn't know anyone else in the whole country. And he said, come on out and live with us. And so off we went to Iowa.
SIMON: And how did you find music?
HADERO: Music has always been a part of who I am. Every singer's mother says the same thing. You sang before you spoke (laughter). And at the same time, when I was 3 years old, I would stop people on the Iowa City buses and ask them if they wanted to hear my rendition of the ABCs.
SIMON: Oh...
HADERO: (Laughter).
SIMON: ...I wish I'd been there.
HADERO: And, you know, I grew up listening to old tapes of Ethiopian music that were like our touchstone to home, at the same time as listening to American radio and then later falling in love with jazz music and singer-songwriter music - you know, three chords and the truth. And so those touchstones started to come together when I began writing my own songs and bringing that into my own sound.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TIZITA")
HADERO: (Singing in non-English language).
SIMON: Could you tell us about the song "Tizita"?
HADERO: "Tizita" is one of the most iconic songs from Ethiopia, and it's about looking back through our memories - our memories that are like a dream - and bringing them forward in the beauty of the bittersweet. I think we all have our tizita. That's actually one of the things that makes it so beautiful. Like, think about the neighbor that you had when you were a child. You played with that neighbor, and there was, like, a freedom in that friendship that was so sweet for you. And maybe you'll never even see that person again in your life. And that sense of looking back on that powerful love but knowing the moment is gone, that's your tizita.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TIZITA")
HADERO: (Singing in non-English language).
SIMON: How many languages do you sing in on this album?
HADERO: I sing in Kambaata, Amharic, Oromo and English. I was really taking inspiration from the traditional musicians of Ethiopia. They all know songs from multiple traditions. That's their template. That's how they do it. Ethiopian music is so vast that a single album could only be a piece of its infinity.
SIMON: Do you think your music tells a story about migration?
HADERO: I think it does. As I started to study Ethiopian traditional music, which didn't happen deeply until I was on tour with The Nile Project, bringing together musicians from the Nile countries. And then I was on tour with Ethiopian traditional musicians. And I started to feel the infinity of Ethiopian music, how many cultural traditions are under that one umbrella of Ethiopian music and how experimental they were.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "KEMEKEM")
HADERO: (Singing in non-English language).
Right around the time that I was on tour with The Nile Project, I also released a song called "Kemekem," which went viral in Ethiopia. It's a song about loving the person with the perfect Afro. And when I heard there was a traditional song about the person with the perfect Afro, I thought, what else is there here for me?
(LAUGHTER)
HADERO: And the video started playing daily on Ethiopian television on multiple stations. And after that, when I would go to Ethiopia, I couldn't walk down the street because people would sing that song to me. So that song was a huge turning point.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "KEMEKEM")
HADERO: (Singing in non-English language).
SIMON: What are the Ethiopian children's riddles in your song "Stars In A Wide Field"?
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "STARS IN A WIDE FIELD")
HADERO: (Singing) Tears are the water you don't drink. Thought is a journey, a journey that don't end. Your bed is an ox, an ox it cannot walk.
HADERO: In Kambaata, which is where my father comes from in Ethiopia, they have a tradition of children's riddles, and my father sent them to me one day. And I was so overwhelmed by their beauty and the way that these children were viewing the world and seeing the world, which has to do with the way that my father grew up. And the significance to me is how important it is to look to the children for the kind of love and expansiveness that they bring to us no matter the traditions they come from. And my offering is to say, hey, look at this offering from the children of Kambaata.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "STARS IN A WIDE FIELD")
HADERO: (Singing) The sky is a mother's mat. It cannot be the rolled up. The rope is a rope, a rope that cannot snap.
SIMON: You said you think of this album as a form of cultural activism.
HADERO: I've called myself a cultural activist in the past. Here's what I mean by that. I mean, we have to honor this music. We can't let it just disappear. I came to this country as a refugee and an immigrant. And so I'm not making this music in a very traditional way. Like, it is very experimental. At the same time, it's like, this is actually only an album that could come from diaspora, from immigration, from migration.
SIMON: That statement really makes me think. It honors and celebrates Native culture. On the other hand, it recognizes that we are all - if I may - agents of change, and the world changes us.
HADERO: That's right. And, you know, culture is alive. Culture is alive. Culture is alive.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ABEBAYEHOSH")
HADERO: (Singing in non-English language).
SIMON: Meklit Hadero - her new album, "A Piece Of Infinity." Thanks so much for being with us.
HADERO: Thank you so much for having me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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