UniLang

Well, it was somewhat hard at first for me to find some quality Swahili music, but I was just searching too hard (or just not looking in the right places). To breathe some life into this forum, and for people who are learning Swahili or just like the sound of the language let's share some songs!

This song is a mix of Swahili & English (chorus is in Swahili)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NU6XizFnUuQ
Title: Haba Haba
Artist: Stella Mwangi

I love this song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4Q_CJY3rKI
Title: Twende Ndani
Artist: Pili Pili
Genre: Hip Hop

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2DPJokhDb0
Title: Moyo Wangu
Artist: Diamond
Genre: Hip Hop

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEL1sNGWAP4
Title: Kasindela
Artist: Mataluma
Genre: Hip Hop (or Bongo)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdtY56ZK3yE
Title: Mteja
Artist: Pili Pili
Genre: Hip Hop

A good electro band
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mG1vIeETHc
Title: Ha-He
Artist: Just A Band
Genre: Electro

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3FIpWxUqXA
Title: Iwinyo Piny
Artist: Just A Band
Genre: Electro

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43XrFVp-fXY
Title: Usinibore
Artist: Just A Band
Genre: Electro

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nue__z1dIdc
Title: Wewe Pekee
Artist: Alice Kamande
Genre: r&b

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svN_QQelWt8
Title: Tukutendereza
Artist: Esther Wahome
Genre: pop/gospel

This is a beautiful video, beautiful country (Kenya), beautiful Swahili! It's a short song, an ad by Safaricom, but really nice...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIBHuqeis3U
Title: Niko na Safaricom

Lovely lady
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5gxggGA6VM
Title: Usiende Mbali
Artist: Juliana Kanyomozi
Genre: r&b

Just discovered an amazing singer, Dela Maranga, she has one debut album Paukwa which is a mix of afro, neo-seoul, reggae and hip hop. A few songs from her:

Beautiful song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zF-ACgtMTiU
Title: Weche Tek
Artist: Dela Maranga

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ScPbbBR0w8
Title: Paukwa Pakawa
Artist: Dela Maranga

This one is English w/ Swahili
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fsR8Z5Bg4o
Title: Mama Papa
Artist: Dela Maranga ft. Sauti Sol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tmut6FBx4xk

LOOOVE This so much!!! Best version of The Lord's Prayer EVER!

“Malaika”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=By7RTKtw_dY

More Sauti Sol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uJme3ZFRBg

That's a great song, Set. I'll have to download their album. Wish my Swahili book would get here! This song's made me very exicited to get back to studying it.

ceid donn wrote:That's a great song, Set. I'll have to download their album. Wish my Swahili book would get here! This song's made me very exicited to get back to studying it.

Yeh, it's a great song, I'm always singing it to myself...well at least the English chorus bit
Unfortunately I haven't found any other songs by them which I have liked as much...let me know if you find something.

"Mpewa hapokonyeki," a taarab from Zanzibar:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8BckINTk8A

Wow, that sounds so Middle Eastern. I mean it makes sense being from Zanzibar, but for me that wouldn't sound at all out of place being played on the radio here.

I know, right? That's actually a large part of the reason why I like it so much I mean, I like some other African music as well (I've posted at least a few songs in Malagasy so far lol), but I'm a huge sucker for Middle Eastern (especially Persian!) music.

These are three songs in Swahili from Tanzania. They all sound like traditional songs. This one by Hukwe Zawose & the Master Musicians of Tanzania is called "Tanzania Yetu," and I specifically remember hearing the bit from 2:32 to 2:56 on Encarta 1996:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78lEKixRQIs
This is another song from the same group that sounds nice. I just found it (through the previous video )! It's called "Sisi Vijana" (which perhaps is an appropriate title for a song on a forum of mostly pretty young people anyway!):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyQl1cs0jIk
See also here for more information on Hukwe Zawose.

Finally, this is the Zanzibari song (the first 38 seconds are also featured in Encarta '96, and that's where I first heard it!) that introduced me to taarab. It's by the Culture Musical Club and is called "Kupendana Kwetu Sisi":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MN66_KW_mW4
ETA almost complete lyrics here: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_ ... 9162490592

Here are two songs from Kenya. One is "The Jambo Song," with just a few fairly simple phrases in Swahili from a YouTube channel set up to help students of Swahili learn a bit of it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fK0wPpLryc4
And here's another one called "Kata Kata" from an album called Chaka Cha by a band called Mombasa Roots. Apparently, kata here means 'dance!' (= cheza?) EDIT: 'wine' (as in Jamaican Patwa). This is apparently a version of the same song performed by Kilimanjaro Band:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Yie6SJJ5n8
ETA lyrics (each line is followed by the response "kata!"):
Kata, kata!
Kata, mwanangu, kata!
Kata, usiogope!
Kata chaku mwenyewe!
Walahu kuwazima!
Hebu leo jitolee!
Hebu leo jionyeshe!
Kata, kata!

This is another song by Hukwe Zawose from his album Chibite (1996) called "Sisitizo La Amani Duniani," dedicated to world peace:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUHNQ5E8swQ
I think this welcome song from the village of Manda, also in Tanzania, is in Swahili as well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7tr-d15IRM
And this is another taarab from Zanzibar performed by the Culture Musical Club called "Bingwa Amekwenda Kapa":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3SUvyg8sRQ
These are three welcome songs in Swahili from Kenya. The first one seems to just be called "Karibu Karibu," which is straightforward enough in meaning: welcome welcome. The last one is called "Wako Wapi?" (Where are they?) and apparently comes from the town of Wamunyu. I don't know about the middle/second one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV4K-wCBZrI

These are apparently two songs in Congolese Swahili from Tennessee, both recorded by the same choir in what I guess is a church (it certainly looks like it could be a church but doesn't have to be):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lM65pNYaPo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MvRg2Wup6s
This is a song, presumably a taarab, from Zanzibar called "Pakistani" performed by Bibi Kidude, hailed in the video description as the "Oldest singer in the worlds" (sic). It has Japanese subtitles! IIUC it's comparing the protagonist's separation from her lover to the partition of British India into India and Pakistan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USZoFYn53c8
And this is another song by Hukwe Zawose called "Ibarikiwe Mungo Yupo Duniani" from Chibite, the same album as the last Hukwe Zawose song I posted in this thread:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDKLceUsLWA