Photo: Spiegel
Student Deena Herr, 22, has recently become a very unlikely superstar in the African nation of Uganda. Above, her East African radio chart-topper, “Mumulete,” sung pretty much flawlessly in one of Uganda’s native languages, the Bantu dialect known as Luganda.
via the artist’s Facebook.
After graduating college, she tells Der Spiegel, she worked for a year in an aid center for street children in Rwanda, then traveled all over East Africa. She ended up in Kampala, a city she says she “fell in love with instantly.”
One evening in a local Kampala bar, a friend who knew she had a good voice suggested she play something on the guitar and sing. She did. One thing led to another, and soon she had a local manager, a video in which she sings a ballad in a local language, and is celebrated on the radio and in local culture as a pop star.
The whole Spiegel interview is worth reading, whether you think this is the coolest thing ever or yet another episode of cultural appropriation.
Photo: Spiegel