Run for IVU Playlist 1

Run for IVU Virtual Challenge
Spotify Playlist 1

1. Forever – by Gyakie (Ghana)
   This incredible soulful 20 year old from Kumasi, Ghana is a afrobeat/afro fusion singer.  She released her first single; “Love is Pretty” in February 2019, and has signed an international record deal with Sony Music entertainment, RCA Records UK and Sony Music Africa. In addition to making music she is also studying for her degree in International Buisness at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi.
2. Daavi Loloto – ET Mensah (Ghana)
   Mensah is a Ghanaian musician who was regarded as the “King of Highlife” music. He led The Tempos, a band that toured widely in West Africa. The group gained international attention and in 1957 Mensah performed with Louis Armstrong.  The highlife style of music started to decline in the 1960s, but E. T. Mensah remained active for years afterwards. He co-starred on a highly successful album with the Nigerian trumpeter Dr Victor Abimbola Olaiya.
3. Baby Come Back – Bataka Squad (Uganda)
   Bataka Squad is a Ugandan hip hop group. The group was formed by Babaluku (a.k.a. Sniperous MC), Saba Saba aka Krazy Native and Big Poppa Momo MC. Founded in the mid-1990s, it is one of the earliest hip hop groups in Uganda. Their unique style of positive Hip-Hop music has inspired youth in Uganda to embrace and celebrate their native languages, culture and tradition.
4. Africa – Orchestre GMI (Senegal)
   Drawn from rare and unheard recordings made in Dakar’s fertile 1960s – 1970s period, the band touches on the sounds of high life, funk, and mbalax a healthy dose of US soul. The music of Senegal in this era was electrified and funky, with strong Reggae influences. Typical of African popular music in the ‘70s, complex beats and multiple layers of guitars, vocals and horns are heard throughout.
5. 7 Seconds – Youssou N’ Dour (Senegal)
   N’Dour  is a singer, songwriter, composer, occasional actor, businessman, and politician from Senegal. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine described him as, “perhaps the most famous singer alive” in Senegal and much of Africa. N’Dour helped develop a style of popular Senegalese music known by all Senegambians (including the Wolof) as mbalax, a genre that has sacred origins in the Serer music njuup tradition and ndut initiation ceremonies.
6. Musi O – Tunya Musi O Tunya (Zambia)
   The band Musi-O-Tunya is generally credited as the creators of Zamrock, a musical genre that emerged in the 1970s in Zambia. It is described as a combination of traditional African music with psychedelic rock, garage rock, hard rock, blues and funk some artists also pulled from acid rock, heavy metal and folk music. It has been described as the combined sound of Jimi Hendrix and James Brown.
7. Who’s That Guy – Ricky Banda (Zambia)
   Also part of the Zamrock scene, Ricky Banda, was a compatriot and bandmate of Rikki Ililonga and Dr. Footswitch.
8. Tuzagera – Jean Paul Samputu (Rwanda)
   Jean-Paul Samputu is a singer, songwriter, and musician from Rwanda. He has established himself as one of the most prominent African artists on the world stage. A winner of the prestigious Kora Award (the “African Grammy”) in 2003, Samputu travels the world as a cultural ambassador for Rwanda, bringing to his audiences not only traditional African singing, dancing, and drumming, but also a message of peace and reconciliation. A survivor of the genocide in Rwanda, Samputu takes us to the most positive place of humanity through his spirit and graciousness
9. Respire – Gaël Faye (Burundi)
   Gaël Faye is a Rwandan-French singer, rapper, and writer. He was born in Bujumbura, Burundi of a French father and Rwandan mother. He emigrated in France at the age of 13 escaping from the Burundian civil war. He wrote a book about it, Small Country (Petit Pays), a semi-biographical book. It was first published in France in August 2016 by Grasset, and has since been translated into 36 languages.
10. Nsezere Ngende – Amabano (Burundi)
    Burundi’s Most Popular 1980s Group, Amabano, signed with the Ministry of Information to become the state-sponsored house band of the national radio station. Their musical base of funk, soul and rumba, sung in a multitude of languages, absorbed a lot of influence from Burundian traditional music, and the Kirundi language would be heard in many of their songs.
11. Tambalane -Djaaka (Mozambique)
    Founded by Nelson Neves, Djaaka is a band that plays traditional rhythms played on traditional instruments.  Neves was from the Cena tribe.  His music is a combination of Afro-fusion which blends Mozambique music with jazz and funk.
12. Hondo – Simon Chimbetu, Marxist Brothers (Zimbabwe)
    Simon Chimbetu was a Zimbabwean guitarist, vocalist and composer. He was the founding member of the band Orchestra Dendera Kings. He was known by many stage names, including “Chopper, “Mr Viscose” (before imprisonment), “Cellular”, “Simomo” and “Mukoma Sam”. During the Rhodesian Bush War, Chimbetu went to Tanzania to join the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), which employed him as an entertainer for its guerrillas in exile.
13. Rokit Bay (Mongolia)
    Rokit Bay is a Mongolian rapper and actor from Ulaanbaatar, hot hip hop scene.  He is best known as a judge for Talented Mongolians, a Mongolian version of American Idol.
14. Tron Tim – Den Vu (Vietnam)
    DenVu has been making music for 10 years, was famous in the underground and independent music scene in Saigon. With multi-million views for his hits, Den has become an icon for Vietnamese rap music lovers in recent years.
15. Mongoose – Trinidad Steel Band (Trinidad)
    Steelpan  is a musical instrument originating from Trinidad and Tobago. Steelpan musicians are called pannists.The modern pan is a chromatically pitched percussion instrument made from 55 gallon industrial drums. This skill and performance have been conclusively shown to have grown out of Trinidad and Tobago’s early 20th-century Carnival percussion groups known as tamboo bamboo. T he pan is the national instrument of Trinidad and Tobago.
16. Cuba – Theophalus London (Trinadad)
    Trinidadian-born American rapper and singer. From buzzy new rapper in the late 2000s and early 2010s to Kanye West collaborator to proto-fashion influencer, he’s been an influential figure since he first emerged out of downtown New York’s art and music scene.
17. Coming in From the Cold – Bob Marley and the Wailers (Jamaica)
    Jamaican singer, songwriter, and musician. Considered one of the pioneers of reggae, his musical career was marked by fusing elements of reggae, ska, and rocksteady, as well as his distinctive vocal and songwriting style. Marley’s contributions to music increased the visibility of Jamaican music worldwide.  This was the opening song on Uprising his last album to be released in his lifetime.
18. I’m Ready – Freedom, Yohann Dore (Haiti)
    Born and raised in Haiti, Youhann has been around music his whole life. He picked up his first guitar at 17, and wrote and performed the theme jingle for one of the main cellular telephone providers in Haiti.  Fluent in French, English and Creole he writes his own songs.  He is also a producer working with other Haitian artists in the field of Dance, Rap, R&B, Hip Hop and Compa, but his true passion is rock music.
19. Pimp the Disco- Madboy/Mink(India)
    Madboy/Mink is  a funk – nu disco duo based in Mumbai, India. Mashing up dirty electro and funk with old school Harlem-swing, they use live guitar and synthesizers with soulfully destroyed vocals and vocoders to play a mod – nu disco anti-aesthetic.
20. Merua – The Garifuna Collective (Honduras)
    The hybrid culture of the African-Amerindian Garifuna communities, located on the Caribbean coasts of Belize, Guatemala and Honduras, is influenced by West Africa and indigenous Carib, as well as the Arawak Indian language. Garifuna music has gained a following in the form of a less traditional style known as punta rock, but the Garifuna Collective focuses on the roots of Garifuna tradition, adding contemporary elements to traditional forms to bring the soul of this music into a modern context.