So, who’s Habte? To most youngsters, he’s just the father of the latest, pop singing sensation, of youtube fame, the beautiful Zewdy and her equally beautiful sister, Zebeeb, another youtube phenomenon (he blames his wife, Amsale, for their beauty). To others he’s that and also the guy who wrote and performed the original Ende Beerabeero in the mid eighties, a song Teddy Afro recently sampled and successfully revived.

To his contemporaries, however, Habte is an amazing (some might say Legendary) r&b singer-song writer-guitarist who usually sings in English, Amharic and some Tigrinya, with versatile, passionate performance that is very infectious. Whether singing a cover or an original, he converts an ordinary song to extraordinary with his energy and style.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Habte created a new style of music which he called  “ Ethio-American music” ..he describes it as a blend of  Ethiopian music of the 1950s and 1960s and American r&b. He explains, “I just took the oriental sounding melody of the Ethiopian music and put chord progressions and heavy rhythms of the blues and Rock’n Roll music of the West.” This made it very appealing to both cultures and it works with either language-Amharic or English.

Right at the beginning of the 1980s, big things started to happen to his music career. From performing at coffee shops and small clubs in the New York Metro, he began receiving invitations to perform at big concerts all over the US and Canada, usually in the Ethiopian community. In 1985, in response to an overwhelming request for records and tapes, Habte recorded a 45 rpm with Ende Beerabeero and Addis Adrashashin, which led to a lot of airplay and interviews with Voice of America, Manhattan Cable, and other local radio stations. Throughout the 1980s, Habte had numerous performances sharing the stage with legends like Alemayehu Eshete, Getachew Kassa, Wubeshett, Aster Aweke, etc, usually as a one-man band though he frequently was backed by the likes of the famous Admas Band.Since early 1990s, Habte had cut back on his performance travels to focus on raising his newly-born children. With the help of the Internet, specifically, youtube, Habte got his daughter, Zewdy signed to Entreeg Records after many trial- and- error moves. This freed him to launch his comeback to the music industry with more focus and intensity (though he never left it completely).

Habte’s currently working on his album, possibly collaborating with some famous producers and won’t be too long before his anxiously awaiting fans can download his album on any digital store.  As of now, his original mini-album, consisting of End Beerabeero and Addis Adrashashin is available on Addis Tunes, I-tunes, Amazon, and other digital stores.

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