Ayalew Mesfin

Ayalew Mesfin is an Ethiopian musician, born in the 1940s in Weldiya in northern Ethiopia, who moved to Addis Ababa at eleven to pursue music. With the Black Lion Band, formed in 1973, he recorded funk and soul whose love lyrics often carried political messages. After the Derg took power he was jailed, kept under house arrest and banned from performing, and in 1998 he left for the United States. Mesfin started out with Gétatchèw Kassa's Soul Ekos Band and ran the Stereo Club and the Ayalew Music Shop in Addis Ababa. His 1970s recordings were issued on 7-inch singles.