Congo Vibes
Music => Congolese Music => Topic started by: Mwana243 on August 29, 2025, 12:59
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https://youtu.be/qSmD6Zosjtg Was Emeneya’s artistic direction insufficient, or had the King overlooked certain imperatives? His ambition was clear: to break through internationally. But to achieve this goal, should he have adapted his songs to a shorter format (3–4 minutes), more in line with global standards? The absence of music videos also likely limited his visibility. It is also reported that he collaborated with Mr. Akueson on this album, though his exact role remains unclear.
By contrast, Abeti Masikini pursued a different strategy: she signed contracts abroad and performed in prestigious venues such as the Olympia in Paris (1971, 1973, 1986), Carnegie Hall (1974), the Royal Albert Hall (1979), the Zénith in Paris (1988), the OVO Arena (1986), and the Apollo Theater (1989).
Papa Wemba, for his part, successfully initiated his international breakthrough thanks to his collaboration with Peter Gabriel: Le Voyageur (1992), featuring Maria Valencia, followed by Emotion (1995), which included tracks such as Yolele, Show Me the Way, Rail On, Fa Fa Fa Fa, and Awa Okeyi.
Unfortunately, for Emeneya, this quest for worldwide recognition did not meet with the same success.
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Everybody was produced by Sonodisc, but Gérard Akueson, with his label, acted as the distributor in Africa. Koffi often collaborated with Tamaris for his Sonodisc albums and later with Ndiaye. Almost all artists from Congo-Zaire used a different distributor for African countries, who had control over the African market, especially since large-scale piracy began spreading there in the late 1980s.
Gérard Akueson was not Emeneya’s manager, but he often helped him out. He was the one who brought contracts for festivals and different events around Europe when Emeneya decided, on his own initiative, to bring Victoria Eleison to Europe in 1991 after securing a large sum of money through the gambling company Bindo Promotions. Mr. Akueson also helped Victoria obtain the necessary papers in Europe when they overstayed and he handled the distribution of the album Polo Kina (1992)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVVwpiJRlb4
Emeneya was managing everything on his own with his staff. However, when you want to succeed in that kind of music, you need management-team who are part of that world and who will actively promote you. Emeneya released Nzinzi with Kaluila and the album was a commercial success in several African countries as well as among the growing African diaspora. This gave him recognition beyond Lingala-speaking countries and allowed him to tour there (Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Togo, Gabon, etc.). But at that time, he was still living in Zaire, while the real hub (la plaque tournante) of the African music industry was Paris. Moreover, there was no proper follow-up. For example, when Papa Wemba released his album in 1989 with Martin Messonnier, besides touring several African countries, he also toured across Europe, performed at festivals, appeared frequently in the media, and was featured in documentaries. I believe that this was one of the reasons why Emeneya decided to remain in Europe, after twice postponing his return to Zaire during the political unrest (the lootings of September 1991 and the Marche des Chrétiens in February 1992). Probably realizing that it was better to live in Paris if he wanted to pursue a career in the world music genre, thinking that Bralima could eventually bring him back to Zaire, just as Bralima and later Unibra (Skol) used to invite Papa Wemba every year for a series of concerts in Kinshasa. But he sadly lost twice, the Congolese community turned their back on him, seeing that music as alien and the white community still did not know him.
Everybody flopping frustrated Emeneya at some point. He could not understand why Congolese people respected Papa Wemba for doing world music, yet were totally against his album Everybody. Journalists like Mbamba Toko even wrote articles saying that Emeneya had thrown his rhythm away on the streets, and that his younger “brothers” from Bandal (Wenge) had picked it up. At the same people peopel cilamed that he was killing Victoria Eleison by bringing foreign artists in. Emeneya hired some female singers, a drummer (since that Molenga passed away and Djudju often being busy), a guitarist, a new bass player (because Fellycko decided to settle in USA following a tour with Aime Bwanga, JF Ifonge and co in the in US) and a keyboard player. Meanwhile, Papa Wemba had his Molokai International, which included musicians of different nationalities. This all made Emeneya seriously consider returning to his roots.
There was a long silence in Emeneya’s discography until he announced Succès Fous, just after Malembe Chante and Auguy Lutula released their album Pas de Contact. Emeneya tried to capitalize on the controversy around Papa Wemba and Koffi Olomidé ignoring him on Wake Up, where they gave shout-outs to all big artists except him. At that time, there was a cassette called Tais Toi, referring to Papa Wemba shouting at Koffi Olomidé in the studio, “Tais-toi, pauvre commerçant,” because Koffi refused to share the money he collected from shout-outs. In the video, fans and even Emeneya himself, reacted to why Koffi and Papa Wemba ignored him, while also talking about his upcoming album Succès Fous. There was even a short clip of Pepe Kallé saying that Emeneya could not be ignored (probably the reason why Emeneya later gave Pepe Kallé a shout-out in the song Litanie). Unfortunately, Succès Fous turned out to be a big flop. It was only thanks to the event at Stade des Martyrs and later the remix album Mboka Mboka that people started to pay attention to it, discovering that was a great album.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cGGq2PhynY
Regarding Everybody not having music videos, it was only two years later that Emeneya released a VHS called Live!, which featured footage of him performing at LSC (although in reality it was just playback) mixed with crowd shots from the presentation of his album Everybody. The tracks used were alternate versions of the songs from Everybody, along with remix versions of Nzinzi and Mokosa. The material was also released on CD under the title Live!. I don’t know what the real vision behind it was. It could be that Emeneya originally intended to release the two versions simultaneously, Live! for the community and the original version for the commercial market. But instead the label (Sonodisc) waited two years, similar to commercial albums from Europe and the U.S., where remix albums were often released one or two years after the original release.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CX9_6H8YTOQ&list=RDCX9_6H8YTOQ&start_radio=1
It is important to note that with Papa Wemba, his transition to world music was a long process. It were white promoters and producers who encouraged him to move in that direction and it coincided with Papa Wemba’s own ambition, since his dream was to become as internationally known as Bob Marley. Papa Wemba had already established contacts with concert-promoters and several journalists of the European press when he toured with Tabu Ley in 1979 and he consolidated these connections when he came back in 1980 with Viva la Musica and again in 1982 on his own.
During his eight-month stay in Europe from November 1983 to July 1984, he recorded the song Malimba with Hector Zazou, which was his first experience with world music. People who were in France at that time said that Papa Wemba felt demotivated to continue with music and even considered quitting, because Victoria Eleison was giving him a hard time, the press was turning against him and he was struggling both logistically and financially. I believe it was Sisi Silenge, though I might be confusing him with someone else, who claimed in an interview that Papa Wemba had even enrolled in a journalism school. Thierry Zonso of Firma Avantage also revealed in one of his interviews that Papa Wemba applied for asylum (ngunda) and at some point started to receive money for it.
Despite these setbacks, Papa Wemba regained his confidence and ended up recording Proclamations with Stervos Niarcos before returning to Zaire with a new set of instruments. Thanks to the contacts he made during his long stay, he later secured a contract to tour in Europe with Viva la Musica. They arrived in December 1985 and returned in August 1986, touring various European countries and even performing in Japan. During that tour he released Esclave. The album itself was not a commercial success in Europe, but the song earned him a great deal of respect because it addressed slavery and Nelson Mandela. He also released the Siku ya Mungu album, which is today a part of discussion between Victoria and Viva fans about who between Wemba and Emeneya being the first to use keyboards, forgetting that before Siku ya Mungu there was Proclamation.
It were people like journalist François Bensignor who advised him, during a short trip to Europe in early 1987, to settle permanently in Europe if he truly wanted to break into world music. When he returned to Zaire, he took part of Viva la Musica with him and brought them to France. During one of their concerts, he met Martin Messonnier, who was already working with various African artists. Messonnier made him sign to his label, established the band Molokai International and helped secure papers for some of the Viva musicians (Reddy, Stino and Demukuse). Thanks to Messonnier, Papa Wemba started to gain real visibility in Europe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xgw4n_Z-shU&list=RDXgw4n_Z-shU&start_radio=1
However, their collaboration eventually ended, as Papa Wemba did not want to stop performing with Viva la Musica “Made in France,” while Messonnier wanted him to focus 100% on his world music career. It was only by chance that he met Peter Gabriel at a festival, which made him later sign with Gabriel’s Real World label. But years later, the same disagreement resurfaced. Gabriel and his team wanted him to dedicate himself fully to world music, while Papa Wemba preferred to invest energy into local music and later fully focus his Nouvelle Écriture project
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Okay I see more clearly on this situation, thank you for all these anecdotes