Acting
Hailu Mergia
Known for
Acting
Credits
3 titles
An innovative Ethiopian keyboardist, accordionist, and bandleader, Hailu Mergia rose to prominence in the early '70s fronting the Walias Band, an instrumental funk and jazz ensemble and fixture of the Addis Ababa hotel circuit. Immigrating to the U.S. in the early '80s, Mergia issued a series of homemade solo releases while working as a taxi driver, later rediscovered by the Awesome Tapes from Africa label, whose reissues in the 2010s helped him mount a successful late-career surge that resulted in the 2018 comeback album Lala Belu. In the early part of his career, Mergia and the Walias Band could be found backing prominent singers and playing lengthy nightclub sets of their own mixture of …
Known for
NRFirst aired on TV on the BBC Two on 29 September 1989, this second episode of the documentary series "Under African Skies", a grand project aimed at presenting the rich diversity of contemporary African music of those days and known for its unforgettable memento "A celebration of the new sounds of a continent. " traverses the nostalgic roots and the euphoric contours of Ethiopian music of the '80s.
Under African Skies: Ethiopia
1989
9.7The story of how the Western world was first introduced to the musical history of Ethiopia, through the `Ethiopiques' CDs and the mastermind behind them, French music journalist, Francis Falceto.
Ethiopiques: Revolt of the Soul
2017
10.0A short film documenting Ethiopian musician Hailu Mergia's life as the leader of the Walias Band in the 1970, his immigration to the United States and his subsequent re-emergence as a performer in 2014.
IT IS A SOUL: A Portrait of Hailu Mergia
2021