blaise bula monga AKA ciélébu,capuccino,diego cao was born on 22 april 1967,and is married to sandrine bashalé he often mentions in his songs and interviews as MAMA,and father of 4 children dylan,junior,amour and esmeralda
he has fifteen brothers which include former quartier latin and zaiko singer willy bula and is the son a former footballer of congolese national team and insurance company executive cyprien bula(RIP)
in his primary school years,he is classmate and schoolmate with future wenge musica friends and colleagues like titina alcapone,jb mpiana, marie paul kambulu,jules kibenga aka kibens,fifi mwamba aka ficarré and journalists like 33 tsitenge and naty lokole
but until age of 12 he is essentially attracted by football like his father,his taste for music only appear when he starts high school
in fact,while in music lesson,his teacher is impressed by his voice and more precisely his maturity(like he explained later in an interview he hit the notes right from the first lesson)
his teacher then proposes him to join the school's group which he accepts and brilliantly inteprets songs of his idols bozi boziana and kester emeneya
in 1983,he is presented to werrason and jb mpiana through common friends and they convince him to join the group
all of the group members being students,they were only playing music together in holidays but most of their parents were against
he misses the first official concert of wenge musica esthetique in 1985 because of his parents reluctance but one year later when he gets his baccalaureate he is allowed to continue with the group as he promises to continue at university
like all of his frienDs of wenge back then,music is a hobby and they are first and foremost students
nevertheless,under guidance of kija brown,mavo voka,mbuta kiss kisolokele,the group starts to prepare first album mulolo,the original plan is 6 songs(3 by jb,one by alain makaba,one by blaise and one by werrason)
but after a dispute with his friends,blaise refuses to participate to studio sessions and the group records album without him but at the end they reconcile and blaise participates,his song dodo la rose and werra's nicky d are not on album mulolo (but appear on the remix in 1994)as they could only release 4 songs in an album
the more the group grows and the more blaise has an influential role in the group and in 1990 after getting his diploma as an engineer in electronics when the group becomes wenge musica 4X4 tout terrain bcbg,he is one the administrators and releases his first song eve sukali (in kin e bouger) which is a big hit
from then on,every single wenge musica album he has a song to his name(chouchou de londres in 1993 in kalayi boeing,masampu in les anges adorables vol2,ave maria in plein feux recorded in 1992 but released in 1996,filandu in pentagone)
in the final album ever recorded by wenge musica members,which is jb mpiana's feux de l'amour,he also contributed with two songs conseil patcho and masuwa
after the split,he goes with alain makaba and jb mpiana to form wenge bcbg and becomes the first ever chef d'orchestre of the group
in the first group album he releases song likala moto and once the group is back in congo,recruits musicians to form the group's reserve band les pipiyu or PPU but then tensions start to appear between him,jb and alain makaba
he is suspended after fighting with maitre ficarré and breaking his left foot and sees it as an humiliation being the chef d orchestre
when the suspension is over,he then comes to concerts when he wants but refuses to take part to preliminary work of album toujours humble
he starts preparing secretly his departure as he recruits in private musicians with the help of his friend rasta bob
meanwhile,the relationship between him and his friends gets even worse and when blaise is sick and stuck in hospital of ngaliema in kinshasa,is not visited by both friends who prefered focusing on the concert of zenith rehearsals
from then on,its clear for blaise he has to go,which he does after annoucing officially his departure on tv
at the beginning,his only plan was to record an album with the help of the few musicians he had recruited before but he gets a lot of support and sympathy from fans and many artists knock his door to work with him
all this motivates him to form a group he calls ponderation 8,based on his first album,he refuses to use the name wenge like his friends to avoid polemic with them
his first album ponderation is succesful in congo and other african countries like ivory coast and this allows him to gets contract for europe tour
from 1999 to 2001,he tours in several european countries but does not play in halls considered as major ones(zenith olympia and co)
then in 2001,the group's work permit has expired and could not be renewed since blaise himself had invested a lot in that tour and his partners who co produced the tour abandoned him so it was impossible to continue performing
this forces blaise to put his career on hold and work as an engineer,but passion for music is so stong that he saves money from his work so he could one day fund studio sessions for another album
six years after he releases album balia ngando produced by himself with the song okota(about valentines day) a huge hit in congo
he keeps working in france as an engineer after a serie of concerts in europe as his group had got authorization to perform again but when in 2009 he goes back to congo to mourn the death of his father,he realises how much his album is appreciated and how much fans have missed him
he then starts planning a definitive return in congo,and prepares his family and group members for a future return
when in 2010/2011 he goes back to kinshasa with his family,he announces his group members will following but most of them finally dont,preferring to remain in europe
he then has to recruit almost a whole band again,and meanwhile signs a contract with brewery company bralima(primus) with the help of his wenge friends adolphe,jb and werra
from then once he has recruited new musicians,he starts having concerts and decides as a symbol to perform for his first concert in the village of his father then comes back to kin
but unlike his colleagues sponsored by primus,he has a short schedule of concerts as he has responsabilities at union of congolese musicians for which he is the stand-in president for over a year until verckys kiamuangana returned to congo and then with new copyright company for which he actively foughr and occupies the fonction of vice- president with his friend werraosn and some other artist of other departments than music
with his new team of ponderation 8 he has been working on album rendekita which he also produces himself and performs every friday VIP after-work concerts for the jet-set of kinshasa
