Ethiopia Playlist

Ethiopia's scene right now runs on Amharic, Tigrigna and Oromo tracks sitting side by side, and much of it moves through Hope Music Ethiopia. The channel has 4.1 million subscribers and says it records, produces and distributes music "rooted in Ethiopian traditions" for home and diaspora audiences alike. The Addis club calendar this month shows where the energy goes: Amapiano, techno and psytrance at the outdoor Mountain Top Music Fest in Gullele Botanical Garden, reggaeton and dancehall on the club listings, and a late-night Irreechaa special at The Wave Club in Bole Atlas, where early arrivals get free shots.

This month the WorldWidePop playlist took in eight videos, and the mix says a lot about the scene. Five of them are throwbacks from 2017 and 2018, Hope Music Ethiopia classics like Asgegnew Ashko's "Lade" and "Zono Zoka" and Tsedi's "Maneh", still getting searched and replayed years on. The three newer additions point the other way: Fortuna Gebresellassie's "TEMBIENAY", Negestat's "Tsenate" featuring Efi, and GRAND 49's "ICON". The old and the new sit together, which is how the scene actually sounds on a Saturday night.

The comments come from Kenya, Eritrea and Somalia, so the listening already crosses borders. Keep an eye on Negestat's back catalogue, which links fans straight to TikTok and Instagram, and on GRAND 49's "SPARTAN", the act's most-streamed track at about 10.9K streams, with no tour dates listed yet.