Abdu Kiar Arada Tour - Washington, DC (2024)
Last month, one of Ethiopia’s well known artists, Abdu Kiar performed his first of many shows in DC, beginning the start of his US tour. The large crowd, packed themselves into DC’s Karma Club venue, singing along to the songs that most have heard since their childhood. Kiar left an indelible imprint on that night, as Helen Leka, a concert goer says that “Abdu Kiar’s concert was phenomenal, I really enjoyed how dynamic his performance was”.
Within recent years, African music has taken an interesting rise as genres like Afrobeats from Nigeria, High Life from Ghana, and Amapiano from South Africa claim space amongst Western listeners. Event organizer Emmanuel Getahun says that Ethiopian music isn’t quite there yet due mostly to the Amharic barrier, however concerts like the one that Kiar performed show how much the community wants to hear the music: “ a lot of people were excited about it…and we had a really good amount of tickets sold” says Getahun.
Although there’s evidence that there is a demand for Ethiopian music here in DC, Kiar’s manager, Wondem has observed in his years of managing Ethiopian artists, that there are some unique obstacles that Ethiopian music goes through to get to the ears of foreign listeners: “...you’re not competing with other Habesha artists, the competition is against American artists…” Wondem says “When it comes to Habesha music, you have to look for it…when it comes to American music…they are heavily promoted, heavily marketed…”. It takes more effort for Ethiopian sounds to reach the ears of those who may not have ever heard the genre before, but it hasn’t stopped other artists from making a name for themselves in the states.