Gabriella Ghermandi

Ethiopia (Amharic music) 

Gabriella Ghermandi: Tew Belew 

Gabriella Ghermandi, an Ethiopian-born, Bologna (Italy)-based storyteller and vocalist based in Bologna (Italy) who writes in Italian and sings in Amharic, articulates her works around the (removed) memory of the colonial experience of Italians in Ethiopia, as part of the construction of her own multifaceted identity. Her book, ‘Regina di Fiori e di Perle’ (English: Queen of Flowers and Pearls, 2007) encountered a remarkable success. Gabriella Ghermandi then founded the Atse Tewodros Project, a band composed by both Ethiopian and Italian musicians, whose CD was released in 2013. In this song, Tew Belew (literal translation "Tell him to back off"), she performs what she describes as “a song that Ethiopian partisans used to sing while preparing the battle against the fascist army.”

(atsetewodros.org)