Meklit Hadero is an Ethiopia American vocalist, singer-songwriter and composer, making music that sways between cultures and continents.
Meklit Hadero is an Ethiopia American vocalist, singer-songwriter and composer, making music that sways between cultures and continents.
Known for her electric stage presence, innovative take on Ethio-Jazz, and her fiery, emotive live shows, Meklit has rocked stages from Addis Ababa (where she is a household name) to San Francisco (her beloved home-base), to New York, London, DC, Montreal, Nairobi, Chicago, LA, Arusha, Rome, Zurich, Rio Di Janeiro, Seattle, Cairo, and more.
At the age of 16, Valera started to salvage radio and TV parts out of discarded electronics to build his own shortwave receiver and transmitter, connecting him to a wider world of musical trends.
Iranian American composer Sahba Aminikia, who had to leave his homeland due to religious persecution, says his pain comes out in his music.
As part of "Movement,” an ongoing series from The World about the lives and work of immigrant musicians, Ethiopian American musician Meklit Hadero recounts conversations with fellow musicians in Ethiopia about the unifying role of music and culture amid the conflict in Tigray.
“Movement,” a one-hour special from The World, brings you stories of global migration through music. Together, host Marco Werman and Ethiopian American singer Meklit Hadero blend song and narrative in a meditation on what it means to be American. We follow a once-undocumented singer in San Francisco on a long-awaited trip back to Mexico, reflect on the experience of exile with a Syrian DJ and hear a Sudanese American artist play his first-ever show in Sudan — all guided by Hadero as she reflects on her own American story.