Tilahun Gessesse

The Amharic service’s Radio Magazine hosts, Addisu Abebe and Alula Kebede, bring you a 50 minutes examination of the singing career of Tilahun Gessesse. The singer, an icon of Ethiopia’s thriving entertainment industry, died Sunday April 19, 2009 and was buried Thursday, April 23, 2009 at Trinity Cathedral following a gathering of hundreds of thousands who bid him farewell on Meskel Square.

Guests on the show include the singer’s widow, Roman Bezu, multi-talented veteran musician and composer Merawi Setot who shared the National Theater stage with the King of Ethiopian Song during his more than 45-years career; Tesfaye Lemma, reknown composer, poet and writer, Dawit Yefru, former band member of the famous Roha and current president of the Ethiopian Musicians Association.

Other interviewees include singer Teshoma Asseged and pianist Abduke Kefene who worked closely with Tilahun, vocalist, Yared Yefru, who sang duets with Tilahun in a ride to the air port as the 68-year-old artist caught a flight back home to Ethiopia, the day before he died.