Artists

Maalesh and his four musicians hail from the archipelago of the Comores Islands in the Indian Ocean.

Born Othman Mohamed Elyas in Moroni of Comorian father and Ugandan mother, he has been playing music since the age of twelve. Maalesh is blessed with a soulful voice and also plays electric-acoustic guitar read more

This Tanga - based group has at its core the two artists Frederick Mariki aka Mkoloni and John Simba aka Dr John. Wagosi wa Kaya comes from the Sambaa language, meaning home boys. They joined together to form the group in 1996 and started to perform in concerts around Tanga read more

Tarbia group was founded in Zanzibar in 1985. They are based at a local madrasa where they practice qasida (Islamic praise music) using dufu (hand-held frame drum) and other drums. They are highly respected among the island's Muslim community for their singing and melodies. The group performs at religious as read more

This is a group composed of teachers and pupils of the Kilimani Madrasa (Islamic school), founded in 1997 in the Kiungani section of Zanzibar town. Qasida Swiffat Nabawiyyatul offers Holy Koran classes as well as qasida (religious music) to pupils ranging from age 4 to 30 and upwards.

Qasida is performed read more

Said Abdallah, aka DJ Side, is one of the island's hardest-working radio presenters.

DJ Side (pronounced "See-day") spends most of his time at Zenji FM (96.8), "Sauti ya Pwani" (Voice of the Coast) - Zanzibar's first private radio station.

Side started in music at Zanzibar's Dhow Countries Music Academy (DCMA), where he read more

Katapila Ngoma started in 1980, with 15 musicians playing traditional drum and dance music of the Pogoro tribe, from Morogoro region of mainland Tanzania.

Around 1986 they added more cultural traditions to their regular repertoire, including sindimba, lizombe and others. From 1990 their fanbase started to explode, when they developed a read more