Movement and Music with Meklit Hadero: A Genre-Bending Journey

My guest today is Meklit Hadero, the Ethiopian-born, San Francisco-based artist. She is best known for her innovative Ethio-Jazz vocals and electric performance style. Even if you were to listen for a few minutes, you’d notice a genre-bending nature to her songs. Her songs weave together jazz, folk, Eastern African influences, and what Meklit calls everyday sounds. 

She has performed worldwide, from San Francisco to Cairo to London to Montreal. Her latest, released in 2017, “When the People Move, the Music Moves Too,” was named among the best records of the year by Bandcamp and the Sunday Times UK. 

She is a National Geographic Explorer, a TED Senior Fellow, and a 2019 Artist-in-Residence at Harvard University. Meklit is the co-founder, co-producer, and host of Movement, a new radio series telling stories of global migration through music.

In our conversation, she shares how she looks to music to express longing, pain, hope, and other facets of the diaspora. Her words reminded me of the importance of heritage and how traditional music from our homelands can be integrated into present movement and music. 

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Host & Executive Producer: Saadia Khan I Content Writer: Yudi Liu & Saadia Khan I Editorial review: Shei Yu I Sound Designer & Editor: Haziq Ahmed Farid I Immigrantly Theme Music: Simon Hutchinson 

Order of Meklit’s Tracks during the episode

Meklit – Yesterday Is A Tizita

Meklit – Sweet and Salty

Meklit – This Was Made Here

Oddisee – Try Again

Dengue Fever – Ethanopium 

Xenia Rubinos – Hair Receding

Meklit – Float and Fall

Additional Links

Meklit Hadero: The unexpected beauty of everyday sounds | Ted

Dr. Jon Jenkins – Chasing Shadow Words: Exoplanets from Kepler & Beyond