TILAHUN GESSESSE                                                                                                  Nominated by Elias Yared
Mention the word ‘music' to anyone in Ethiopia and the next possible world that could naturally follow is ‘Tilahun'. In Ethiopia and for Ethiopians, the very concept of contemporary music is indeed synonymous with the name Tilahun. He was a singer like no other with tremendously charismatic appearance, holding his rightful place in Ethiopia as the country's one and only king of pop.

From love, family and friendship to liberty, unity and justice, there wasn’t an aspect of life that Tilahun didn’t sing about. Music has a special place in the everyday lives of Ethiopians and no singer has been able to win the sentiments of the people the way Tilahun did over the years.

The veteran singer was not just a renowned artist; he was also a national treasure of highest quality and standards.

A shocking attempt to kill the legendary singer by stabbing with a sharp object was made almost 16 years ago to the date, on 18 April 1993, which fell on Ethiopian Easter Sunday. He had sustained a life-threatening slash on his neck and had to be flown out to Europe for treatment. Tilahun was the only person to have known the identity of his attacker and the circumstances surrounding the attempted murder, but he consistently refused to reveal his knowledge of the matter.

After battling diabetes for more than three years, Tilahun had his right leg amputated on 3 February 2005, which came as another disturbing news to the Ethiopian people.

Tilahun was born on 27 September 1940 to his mother Gete Gurmu and his father Gessesse Wolde Kidan in Addis Ababa. He was first hired by the Hager Fikir Theatre to subsequently join the Imperial Body Guard Band where he became a leading singer. He then quickly became a household name all over Ethiopia, which literally made his name synonymous with the very concept of contemporary music in the country.

Tilahun had a heart attack on 20 April 2009 in Addis Ababa and died shortly after. It was also reported that Tilahun and his wife, Roman Bezu, had arrived in Addis Ababa from the United States on 19 April to spend the Ethiopian Easter holidays with family and friends.

The death of Tilahun marked the end of an era in Ethiopia and a huge sense of loss was evident in the faces of Ethiopians across the country.

Tilahun was farewelled on 23 April 2009 in an unprecedented state funeral ceremony in Addis Ababa.

The state funeral ceremony was a fitting finale to the extraordinary life of Tilahun Gesesse, who served his people and country as a supreme entertainer, a patriot, a preacher of peace and love.

In so many ways, Tilahun Gesesse was larger than life. But it was his passion for music and his love for his country that will ensure he is not forgotten.

His funeral proved that Tilahun can be even larger in death than in life – his state funeral was the first such event witnessed in modern Ethiopia.

State funerals are automatically granted to heads of states, but no Ethiopian leader ever in the country’s modern history was given a final send-off in a such dignified manner. Tilahun was 68.

ASTER AWEKE                                                                                                  Nominated by Befekir Kebede
Aster Aweke has long been dubbed the queen of contemporary Ethiopian music and rightly so. In her dazzling singing career spanning the last three decades, she revolutionized contemporary Ethiopian music and brought it to the international stage. Undoubtedly, Aster's music adds a bit of flavor to the lives of many Ethiopians.

Through her music, Aster has taught us important lessens about life, love, and about our beloved country. Time and again, she taught us how to express our love and affection to Ethiopia. We laughed and cried listening to her expressive music, swamped by reminiscences of people we had romances with, places we frequented in the past and moments of our lives we always cherish. Music soothes, it raises passions, transports and recalls memories; we know it does having listened to Aster's music for as long as we have surrendering to the ever-soulful rhythm.

MAHMOUD AHMED                                                                                                  Nominated by Desta Alebachew
Artist Mahmoud Ahmed is among Ethiopia's most prominent entertainers. Although no one in his family sang from an early age, Mahmoud made no effort to be anything else. Leaving school unqualified, Mahmoud began work as a shoe-shine boy. A series of jobs followed until he ended up handy-man at the Arizona Club in Addis Ababa. One evening Mahmoud persuaded the house band to let him sing and soon he was a member of Haile Selassie’s ultra-official Imperial Band.  Mahmoud recorded his first single in 1971 and quickly became a favorite across Ethiopia.  Turning 66 in 2007, Mahmoud Ahmed has been entertaining Ethiopians over the years traveling to African states, Europe, Canada, United States and Australia. In May 2007, he was announced as the winner of the year's BBC Radio 3 Awards for World Music held in London.  Mahmoud is a very talented, versatile artist with a musical flair of his own.  The contributions he has made and is making to the field of music in Ethiopia is enormous and Ethiopians are grateful to him for his enduring efforts to spice-up their lives.

MULATU ASTATKE                                                                                          Nominated by Selamawit Assegedew
Mulatu Astatke is one of the giants in the Ethiopian Pop and Jazz music production and arrangement scene. He produced some of the finest and most prestigious Ethiopian music compositions to date. Mulatu started in the late 1950s recording several LPs - one of which - Mulatu of Ethiopia - has become a legend among DJs in recent years. On piano, organ, vibes and percussion, with his arrangements and compositions, and as an agent provocateur, he has always been a pivotal figure with ubiquitous presence in the Ethiopian pop and jazz arena.

He is a club owner, music school founder, radio DJ, composer, arranger and instrumentalist. Mulatu will no doubt go down in history as an exceptional musical innovator of the Ethiopian groove. His distinct brand of Ethiopian music features some of the most soulful instrumentals ever recorded in the whole of Africa . In 2005, Mulatu collaborated with Hollywood to create a movie with Ethiopian soundtrack; he arranged the music for the Hollywood Comedy/Drama production of Broken Flowers, bringing the soulful rhythms of Ethiopian music to the world at large. His music composition and arrangements signify gigantic artistic prestige as they are capable of bringing out the best of contemporary Ethiopian rhythms.

EMAHOY TSEGEMARIAM GEBERU                                                                  Nominated by Alula Kebede
Emahoy Tsegemariam Geberu is 83 in 2007.  She plays the organ, piano and violin living in a monastery in Jerusalem.  The nun started playing different musical instruments in 1928.  She is a lyricist and visual artist who can also speak several foreign languages including Hebrew, French and German.  She has written hundreds of songs, and produced some of the most listened to and loved instrumental works of music in Ethiopia. 

Having studied music in Switzerland as a child and later in Egypt, she became a nun and lives in a convent in Jerusalem.  Emahoy has recorded six LPs and CDs; the latest was recently released as the 21st in the "Ethiopique" series by the French record company, Buda Records.  The Nun worked and lived in Switzerland, Italy, France and Egypt.  Click here to listen to a sample of her most famous instrumental music.

TAMAGNE BEYENE                                                                                           Nominated by Sisay Alebachew
Tamagne is a highly gifted artist and he started entertaining people at a very young age. Among his talents as a comedian, impersonations of people and different styles of music from various Ethiopian cultures and languages, as well as introducing himself and other artists in a hilarious and poetic way are his hallmarks.

He worked with the Gondar Traditional Group and subsequently with the National Theatre of Ethiopia before he was chosen to take part in an international goodwill tour of Ethiopian artists in 1987. The tour named People-to-People was conducted in North America and Europe and Tamagne contributed greatly to its successful completion.

He is a brilliant comedian with evidently sensational passion for Ethiopia. And besides his talents in the world of comedy and entertainment, he is best known for his charismatic patriotism and his outspokenness against the unpatriotic ways and the injustices of the current regime in Ethiopia. Not only is he an outspoken critique of the EPRDF regime, he is also a human rights campaigner, a role model and an inspirational figure particularly for the younger generation of Ethiopia.

He organizes public performances not only to entertain people but also to promote unity among all Ethiopians. He has always used his talents and access to the Ethiopian people to express his love for Ethiopia and to teach and inspire others to do likewise. His outspokenness has made him very popular among Ethiopians who have serious concerns about the very nature of the EPRDF regime. However, Tmagne was imprisoned by the regime in 1996 and upon his release, he left Ethiopia for the United States where is still resides.

Although Ethiopia has numerous other comedians, Tamagne is largely seen as a pioneer in the filed of comedy for he has made Ethiopians laugh time and again the way no other comedian has ever done. And his courageous and selfless efforts to promote patriotism, unity and respect among all Ethiopians - which have come to be his hallmarks – make him one in a million.

ENGDAZER NEGA                                                                                      Nominated by Maraki Sewalem Engidazer Nega is best known in Ethiopia as the mother of comedy.  There was no female comedian in Ethiopia that achieved a cult following before her and there hasn’t been any ever since she passed away. She simply was a one-off.Engidazer was a teacher for 11 years until she joined Ethiopian Television in 1979 as a journalist.  And after a while, she was presented with an opportunity to follow what her heart was telling her to be – a comedian.  She took the opportunity and went along with it and began making so many Ethiopians laugh.  She was a natural comedian who could make anyone laugh effortlessly. 

She once fell from a roof while working on one of the many comedy shows she produced and was seriously injured.  Her injuries made her unable to work and a treatment was very hard to find within the country.As a process for a trip to the west got underway in search for a better medical treatment abroad, she suddenly got sick with toothache. A painkiller she took for the toothache created complications and was written as the cause of her sudden death on 13 November 2004. She may have died prematurely at the age of 58 when she had a lot more to do and when she had a lot more of her sense of humor to put more smiles on our faces.  Yet she will always be remembered as a comedian of exceptional quality that raised the standard of comedy to the highest possible level in Ethiopia particularly for women.   

ALEBACHEW TEKA                                                                                     Nominated by Yonathan Lessanu
The name Albachew Teka is synonymous with hilarious comedy in Ethiopia.  Along with his fellow comedian Lemeneh Tadesse, Alebachew popularized modern Ethiopian comedy in Ethiopia on the national television.  It was his efforts and talents that set new and unprecedented standards and that paved the way for comedy to be a recognized modern-day profession in Ethiopia.  He entertained Ethiopians in Ethiopia for many years and traveled abroad to make Ethiopian expatriates in different parts of the world laugh.   

After touring the world to entertain Ethiopians, he then started the first Ethiopian talk show - The Alebeh Show - on the national television.  This too was unprecedented in Ethiopia and as such, the show caught the interests of thousands of Ethiopians.  In the pioneering show, he persuaded many of the Ethiopian affluent guests to the show to help the destitute of Ethiopia - and as a result - he was seen as a very humanitarian Ethiopian as well.

Alebachew died on 16 January 2005 in a suspicious car accident while traveling from Addis Ababa to Jimma to film an episode for his show. His car reportedly plunged into a ravine about 30km from Jimma. He was 44 years old.  News of his death was met with shock and more than 100,000 mourners attended his funeral at St. Joseph's Church in Addis Ababa. He left a wife, two daughters and a son.  Whatever the cause of his death, Albachew Teka was a true gentleman, a true comedian and a wonderful Ethiopian.  He may be dead, but his legacy will live on in the hearts of Ethiopians forever.

WEGAYEHU NEGATU                                                                                      Nominated by YAsrat Kefle
Wegayehu Negatu, one of the brightest stars to come out of the Ethiopian Theatrical scene, was born on June 1944 in Qebenna, Addis Ababa. Wegayehu attended the Swedish Evangelical Mission School and he went on to complete his secondary education at Teferi Makonnen. There, he was known for his humor and comic portrayal of film characters, especially during the numerous outings of the Boy Scouts. Soon after graduation, he joined the Haile Sellassie I University's Creative Arts & Theatre Program in 1963, where he studied the art of plays, stage production and make-up and costume for two years. It was there that he first displayed his talents in plays such as "Romeo and Juliet", Samuel Becket's "Waiting for God" and Menghistu Lemma's "Marriage among Unequals" and "Marirage by Abduction".

Wegayehu went to Budapest – Hungary - for two years of studies in theatre, culminating in a well-received performance of Hungarian plays at The Madaç Theatre in Budapest. Years later, the President of Hungary, on hearing the death of Wegayehu, was to remark on the merits of this Ethiopian actor who had captivated the Hungarian people in 1967 while performing ‘Pantomim’ in their own language. After a year of unsuccessful attempts back home at finding a job in the Arts, Wegayehu went back to the Creative Arts & Theatre Center, this time working as the Programs Director in Theatre until 1970.

He then served as an actor in 'Hager Fikir' Theatre for a year, thereupon joining the Radio and Television department of the Ministry of Information. Tuners to the airwaves during those years were to witness the highly creative touch of Wegayehu in the scores of advertisements and plays that were beginning to be prevalent and, with his help, popular. One also remembers his pioneering work in popularizing the art of miming on TV. It was also at the end of 1970 that Wegayehu got married to AmsaleGenet Yimer, an employee at the Press Ministry. They had three children, and were later to cooperate on several plays with AmsaleGenet as producer.

During the 1970s, Wegayehu was involved in plays such as Tsegaye GebreMedhin's 'yeKermo Sew' (Here to stay), 'Petros Yachin Saat' (Petros at that hour) and Yilma Manaye's 'Zerray Deresse'. While performing Zerray Derrese in Asmara, his portrayal was so convincing that the hero's older brother, Blata TesfaTsion Derrese, would not let Wegayehu out of his sight for two weeks, talking to him as if conversing with Zerray. This response was to be typical as Wegayehu continued to mature in his art and traveled to Lagos and Algiers representing Ethiopia on the stage.

From 1974 to the day of his untimely death in December of 1989, Wegayehu was to have yet another distinguished career as an actor and an inspiring teacher at the National Theater. A majority of the total 30 theatrical plays he performed in life were staged during these years. Among them were Berhanu Zerihun's 'Moresh', and Tsegaye GebreMedhin’s ‘Ha-hu be Sidist Wer’ (ABC in six months). Ha-hu be Sidist Wer was to be among one of Wegayehu’s best performances but, sadly, while on the set, he caught severe pneumonia, which led to his death after years of ill health.

Fellow artists remember how serious and thorough Wegayehu was while preparing for a play. He would completely immerse into his character minutes before performance and while on the stage, he would literally control the heartbeat of his audience. They jeered at the Count in ‘Wanaw Teqotatari’, suffered with the distraught farmer in ‘Enat Nesh’, cried for Jilu Moro in ‘Enat Alem Tenu’. This people’s actor was ever modest, downplaying his talent and always striving to give his best to the audience that had given him due honor. In the last 10 years of his life, he played a vital role in immortalizing the written word by single handedly reaching out to a much wider audience of Ethiopians, literate and illiterate, through his masterly narration of books like Hadis Alemayehu’s ‘Fiker eske Mekabir’ (Love to the Grave) and Berhanu Zerihun’s ‘Ma’ibel’ (Flood). Listeners, to this day, remember being glued to the radio every week at 7 in the morning just to hear the characters being brought to life by this amazing artist.

FEKADU TEKLEMARIAM                                                                                       Nominated by Lulit Mahari
Fekadu Teklemariam is arguably the most talented actor Ethiopia has ever produced.  From theatrical plays on the stage to radio, television and now screen performances, Fekadu has been entertaining Ethiopians for decades with his unparalleled acting talent.  One of his best and most notable stage performances is his play in the theater – Thewodros – where he plays the renowned 19th century Ethiopian emperor – Emperor Thewodros.  The play gave Ethiopians a near-firsthand experience of the leadership of the wise and brave emperor who committed suicide on April 13, 1868 at the top of Makdela Hill in Gonder to avoid capture by the British. 

Fekadu's impersonation skills were so good that a lot of Ethiopians who saw the theater think of him as the emperor.  Besides his brilliant performances in countless weekly radio dramas, Fekadu is also known for his engaging narration of Ethiopian novels on the national radio.  And on television, he worked as the leading actor of many television plays that have become favorites of many Ethiopians.  And as the Ethiopian movie industry attempts to reinvigorate itself with the advent of the digital technology in Ethiopia, Fekadu is still at the forefront of the productions as a veteran actor of unmatched quality and talents.  His contributions to the field of acting in Ethiopia are enormous and he needs to be applauded.

ALEMTSEHAY WEDAJO                                                                                 Nominated by Ketema Asnake
Artist Alemtsehay Wedajo is one the best and most known Ethiopian artists who is versatile enough to be a song-writer or lyricist, an actress, and a journalist. She wrote the lyrics of more than 30 of the most loved and enjoyed contemporary Ethiopian songs by veteran Ethiopian singers such as Tilahun Gesesse, Muluken Melesse, and Mohamoud Ahmed.  Alemtsehay also wrote columns for mainstream magazines and newspapers in Ethiopia for several years.  And she acted in various television and theatre dramas as well as in some Ethiopian movies. 

In the year 2000, she founded an organization by the name of Taitu Cultural Centre in Washington DC to train and work with aspiring Ethiopian artists. So far, Taitu Cultural Centre has produced and staged 17 theatres in America and Alemtsehay and her group are planning to tour Europe and other parts of the world to stage their works to Ethiopian audiences across the world.  Artist Alemtsehay’s contributions to the field of theater and acting is enormous and she needs to be honored and praised as Ethiopia gets ready to start a millennium of its own.  

ALE FELEGE SELAM                                                                                                 Nominated by Tamirat Abebe
Ale Felege Selam was one of the pioneer visual artists in Ethiopia.  Born in 1924, he was a painter, illustrator and educator who created hundreds of artists including those who have become household names.  In 1959, he founded the School of Fine Arts in Addis Ababa, and was the director of the school from 1959-1974.  His art collections are permanently displayed at the National Museum and at the Trinity Cathedral in Addis Ababa, as well as at the Kulubi Gabriel Church in Harar.  Ale Felege Selam has always been an important artist in the advancement of art and artists in Ethiopia who has made an unequalled contribution to the visual arts discipline in Ethiopia.

GEBRE KRISTOS DESTA                                                                               Nominated by Samrawit Kiros
Gebre kristos Desta was a leading painter of modern art who made a monumental contribution to the field of fine arts in Ethiopia.  He was a painter, educator and a poet of exceptional quality also passionately promoting fine arts in particular and arts in general in Ethiopia.  He is also credited with being the pioneer who introduced abstract painting to the country.  He was a senior arts instructor at the School of Fine Arts in Addis Ababa in 1965; and was head curator of Addis Ababa City Hall Gallery in 1977.  His art collections are permanently displayed at the National Museum, at the City Hall Gallery, and at the University of Addis Ababa.  Gebre kristos Desta died in 1981 at the age of 50 in Oklahoma, USA.  And in 2004, an arts gallery was inaugurated in his name in the German Cultural Institute in Addis Ababa.  The passionate artist may have departed prematurely with his invaluable talents, but he will no doubt live forever through his works of art inspiring Ethiopians for generations to come. 

AFEWEREK TEKLE                                                                                      Nominated by Fasika Sewenet
Ethiopia has a huge list of gifted visual artists who have made visual communication a huge part of everyday Ethiopian culture.  But Afewerk Tekle is by far Ethiopia’s most talented and prominent visual artist.  He is a Painter, Sculptor and Illustrator of exceptional excellence.

He started drawing as a primary school student in the late 1930s and kept nourishing his talent.  In 1947, he was sent to England to become a mining engineer.  However, his artistic fervor prevailed and he was accepted at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London and later went to the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Slade School of Arts. Upon completion of his studies he returned to Addis Ababa where he held a solo exhibition at the Municipality Hall in 1954. It was the first significant art exhibition in Ethiopia.Subsequently, he traveled to Italy, France, United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal and Greece in order to broaden his artistic horizons.  He also made a special study of the Ethiopian illustrated manuscripts in the British Library - the Bibliothẻque Nationale - in Paris and the Vatican Library, thereby gaining a deeper understanding of his own artistic heritage.

Among his early works, the decoration of the interior of St. George’s Cathedral in central Addis Ababa is very noteworthy.  At the cathedral he worked on murals and mosaics for three and a half years. His reputation grew not only within the country but also internationally as his mastery over diverse media was established. His drawings, paintings, murals, mosaics, stained-glass windows and sculptures, his designs for stamps, playing cards, posters, flags and national Ethiopian costumes, all contributed to build up his position as Ethiopia’s foremost visual artist.
 
Artist Afewerk designed his own house, studio and gallery, known as Villa ‘Alpha’. He was architecturally inspired by his own cultural heritage, especially by ancient Aksum, the mediaeval castles of Gondar and the old walled city of Harrar.  His complex of buildings was conceived as a whole in 1959, but was realized in stages over a period of fifteen years, as a third of the proceeds of every exhibition abroad was devoted to the construction of the work. His 1961 retrospective exhibition in Addis Ababa was a major landmark in the country’s artistic life. One of the paintings exhibited is the now well-known Maskal Flower which made its debut on this occasion, and has since been exhibited in the USSR, the USA, and at the Festival of Negro Arts in 1965 at Dakar - Senegal. During the period when much of Africa was fighting for independence and working for the unity of the continent, Afewerk saw himself as part of the struggle and contributed enormously through his art.

His well-known paintings included ‘Backbones of African Civilization’, ‘African Movement’, ‘African Atmosphere’ and ‘African Unity’, and ‘Africa’s Heritage’, most of which now in the permanent collection of the National Museum of Ethiopia. He is perhaps very well-known for his internationally famous stained-glass windows at the entrance of the headquarters of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa in the Ethiopian capital – Addis Ababa.  This piece is one of his greatest achievements; it shows his mastery on a gigantic scale (150sq.m.) of a medium and it has inspired artists all over the world, and it embodies in its three panels Africa’s sorrowful past, present struggle, and its high aspirations for the future.

In 1964 he became the first winner of the Haile Sellassie I Prize for Fine Arts. The citation described him as a ‘versatile and disciplined artist’. And the prize was awarded ‘for his outstanding drawings, paintings, landscapes, and portraits which eloquently express his particular world environment, and for his contribution in being among the first to introduce contemporary techniques to Ethiopian subject matter and content.’

He was also awarded the order of Merit in Ghana in 1964; Order of Merit in Senegal in 1965; National order in Senegal, 1967; Order of Arts and Letters in France in 1970; Grand Order of merit for Fine Arts in Egypt in 1975; Gold Medal in Algiers International in 980; and several other national and international awards. Ethiopia and Ethiopians are very thankful to him for his pioneering works and achievements in the field of Fine Arts in Ethiopia. 

ZERIHUN YETEMGETA                                                                              Nominated by Yonathan Lessanu
Zerihun Yetmgeta is a renowned graphic artist and painter who has public collections at the National Museum and at the Postal, Telegraph and Telephone Museums in Addis Ababa. His artistic talent was discovered at a young age. Upon completion of high school, he began painting classes at the Empress Menen Handicraft School. A year later he was admitted to the School of Fine Arts in Addis Ababa where he studied from 1963 to 1968. He has been teaching two-dimensional art and graphics at the School of Fine Arts since the early 1970s.  Zerihun has tremendous empathy for his Ethiopian heritage and his identity as an African, but also sees himself as a citizen of the world.  One can easily observe his passion for history and the cultural heritage of Ethiopia and Africa in many of his works.

His works have appeared in international exhibitions for over 25 years and has received special recognition with his participation in major exhibitions in Switzerland and Cuba. He was awarded a medal at the First Annual Ethiopian Students' Art & Craft Exhibition in 1958; was named ‘Best Fine Arts Instructor of the Year’ in Addis Ababa in 1986; and was awarded the prestigious Grand Prix de la Biennale de DAK'ART 92 in Senegal in 1992.  His contributions to the growth of the visual and fine arts industry in Ethiopia are enormous and the positive effects of his contributions are far-reaching and enduring.