PRIVATE LIFE AND PERSONALITY


jean baptiste meleya aka manda chante was born in 1971 in kinshasa,he is married to betty lusamba and father of 5 kids
he has always been a rather confident person since his childhood which actually made him spend time quite early with older people than kids of his age
jean baptiste is also known for having a strong personality,which sometimes makes him look like a rude guy as he is very honest
but besides that strong personality,jean baptiste has a big heart, a sense of community,he is very often involved any collective activity within the corporation of artists,even using his own funds sometimes to drive all around kinshasa to inform colleagues of reunions(maisha,reunions with ministers and so on) or try to convince some colleagues to participate in some events reuniting several artists
jean baptiste is somebody very passionate who puts a lot of energy in what he does and expects the same from people around him which sometimes leads to frictions especially with his extreme honesty


ROLE MODELS AND DEBUT AS A MUSICIAN

jean baptiste's main role model is papa wemba,but as a ok jazz fan although considering himself as a fiesta singer,he has a lot of admiration for ntesa,josky kiambukuta,pepe ndombe,lutumba simaro,the fiesta masters grand kalle and tabuley,aswell as the likes of defao,evoloko jocker(he will be nicknamed nkumu in reference to evoloko),king kester...
jean baptiste started singing at church very early in mid 1970's and at the same time having contact with "popular music" as in early 80 he will be following sometimes singer bipoli at victoria eleison debut rehearsals
he will join the church group "les co heritiers du christ" in his neighbourhood of ndjili in kinshasa and in 1985 the group the way international(with late babia shokoro) where he is named manda
at just 14 of age he impresses with his voice and artistic maturity for such a young guy
one year later he will join group yoka choc of ndjili with the likes of serge ndomanueno aka celezino,where he brings his friend babia few times later,he becomes chef d'orchestre of that group and in 1987 he join the group choc sans rival of ex anti choc singer fifi mofude and will shine at a festival for young "street" artists organized by zacharie bababaswe
few months later,he is introduced to werrason and didier masela to join the group wenge musica as the group starts to build a reserve supposed to start concerts before them
manda chante starts appearing in wenge musica concerts alongside marie paul and alain mpela
this is the debut of his professional career

WENGE MUSICA,WENGE EL PARIS AND WENGE REFERENCE

slowly but surely manda chante starts singing with the first team of werrason,jb mpiana,blaise bula,adolphe...and impresses at concerts but enjoys a difficult relationship with jb mpiana and werrason because of his character which is seen as a rebel one
nevertheless he participates in third group album plein feux and gets a vocal in jb mpiana's nazareth,he also gets one in werrason's nicky
in that period,he gets sick and has a lot of pimples on his face and as it was a commen belief back in those days it could only be a mystic attack and manda suspected jb of fearing him so it matched that theory,in reality it was an allergy
he participated despite that in album kalayi boeing with arguably his most memorable vocal in wenge musica, but felt he was not supported by the group's leaders who he had a troublesome relationship with,and also does not appreciate being unpaid when participating to albums and tours
so when the group returns to kinshasa,he decides to stay in europe and joins marie paul,aimé bwanga,ricoco,zing zong who had founded wenge aile paris
few months after his arrival the group has to split in two as there is too much musicians which make producers reluctant,so some musicians follow aimé buanga and ricoco(jf ifonge,jdl..) with the name wenge aile paris,while the group ruled by leader marie paul roi pélé,president manda and chef d'orchestre depitsho is name wenge EL paris
from 1994 to 1996 they record on album which is purely and simply torn into pieces by mobutu's children saddam hussein kongolo
in 1997,wenge el paris record album le monde à l'envers,also known as armaggedon in south africa and manda has songs like silva,liberté,ibrahim....and impresses so much that he wins best singer of the year award
in 1998,while tensions forced the rivals of 4X4 to split,el paris record couvre feu and manda has songs like tribute to doudou niwa,wabelo rango...but then strong tensions appear as marie paul supports heavily werrason much to manda's disagreement and disappointment as he holds strong grudge against werrason for never paying him in wenge and abusing of his power to give him orders even outside music
manda leaves marie paul's house where he lived for months because of trouble following mobutu's departure and leaves the group to form his own group wenge reference
he will start recruiting musicians,shortly taking celezino and a couple of el paris musicians,then organizes tests which see among others the likes of atalakus apocalypse,showme nanvueri,eric milambo later known as gesac tshipoyi tgv....
in 2000 he is about to get a contract with jps production for his first album,but does not get it at the end and suspects werrason to have influenced jps to change his mind,he releases album bouclage with ndiaye production,and remixes of ibrahim and wabelo aswell as a song for his wife betty and celina which gets a good reception
one year later after intervention of common friends,he is a guest at a wenge maison mere concert in europe
two years after he releases second album onction then delivrance totale three years later,with remix of celina
in this period,manda is humiliated in europe by combattants who spit on his face,slap him,insult him...because he participated in election songs
 he decides to take a long time to release next album to make sure he bounces back from the two previous which did have a great popularity
in 2010,he announces his album will be named" je suis"(i am) and drops wenge off the name of his group,becoming la reference
three years later,while he has advanced in recording,he announces he fires all his group members and is recruiting musicians but warns those who want to apply that they must not be guys whose biggest musical talent is their love for bleach cream in his typical very direct way of talking
unfortunately for him his album will suffer a big blow as his producer lando batibuka passes away,in this tough periode where many things went wrong he is offered support by jb mpiana who offers him a whole set of instruments,lambio lambio who has a big contribution in terms of choreography for return of his concerts and ofcourse the new album je suis,featuring papa wemba,bozi boziana,delvis el salsero..

Nazo zela ba bio ya batu baza na success neti Kerozene,CNN etc.

Thanks for the BIO Archos, S/Celina remains my fav out of generation Wenge.

What's the reason that Saddam Hussein blocked their album ??

What's the reason that Saddam Hussein blocked their album ??

same reasons that the other wenge ,but aswell saddam had reconciled with them so he was on their side,there were also many videos of concerts of el paris which were burned in that period
he used to switch camps depending on his relationship with either group

 Ooh so that's the reason why it was difficult to find a VHS of El Paris from that period....
Aah lisusu pona  makambo ya basi. Ba nzanzi nioso kaka ya ye ? It doesn't surprise me that he later died of that thing like bro.....

Manda deserved better solo-career. I hope that he can get a little bit of success back with "Je Suis"

Why did he part ways with Marie Paul?

Why did he part ways with Marie Paul?

Because marie paul threw all his energy to support werrason during the split whereas him manda had a grudge with werra for not having cared for him during disease in kalayi boeing session days and the way werra used to send him to do things
and they had a strong argument were he "warned" marie paul that werra would betray him

NoWerra is like Don King or the Congolese version of PDiddy, fans like him for providing a platform and bringing the best out of artists but the artists themselves would say otherwise...

Archos I'll bug you some more, there's documented war of words between Manda and Fally, was the former ever in QL?  Whatever triggered the beef was it similar  to Fally vs Ferre?

the beef between fally and manda was kinda made up in a polemic dvd it was also due to some manda comments on fally and overall the new generation of musicians pulling their trousers down,wearing big chains and so on like it was in that era where most musicians had braids or dreadlocks so fally replied and invited him to join quartier latin and stop being jealous of them
 manda and fally get on very well now to the extent that for the manda chante ntesa fally took a flight from states to kin then back to states just after concert

Nazo zela ba bio ya batu baza na success neti Kerozene,CNN etc.

Kerozene and CNN baza na success sikoyo?....lol....bana ya seri 90 mawa

Nazo zela ba bio ya batu baza na success neti Kerozene,CNN etc.

Kerozene and CNN baza na success sikoyo?....lol....bana ya seri 90 mawa

Baza na success te mais bazalaki na success ko leka Manda.

Nazo zela ba bio ya batu baza na success neti Kerozene,CNN etc.

Kerozene and CNN baza na success sikoyo?....lol....bana ya seri 90 mawa

Baza na success te mais bazalaki na success ko leka Manda.

If you had witness his success of 1993-99 then you wouldn 't have said those stupid things

If you had witness his success of 1993-99 then you wouldn 't have said those stupid things

Don't mind him, he was born in the year 2000s