It amazes me how Papa Wemba kept performing on national television, while many bandleaders had stopped doing so since the late ’90s.


At this point, Papa Wemba already had Nouvelle Écriture, but he decided to create a new team called "Bana Malongi", likely realizing that the singers were getting older and that fresh blood was needed. The slogan "Laissez les enfants s'exprimer" frustrated many members of Nouvelle Écriture, who felt that Papa Wemba was preparing to sideline them, especially the singer Al Pacino, who decided to leave after being left behind during a trip to South Africa.This reaction came despite the fact that, ten years earlier, Papa Wemba had prioritized Nouvelle Écriture over Viva la Musica's Cour des Grands. However, the experiment with Bana Malongi didn’t go well, as the album Kaka Yo, released in 2008, ended up being a flop.

Kaka Yo is an interesting case for me on why it was a big flop. On paper it was a good album, but it came at the wrong time. For some time after it’s release it seemed like he wanted retirement the way he was talking in interviews, but he decided to change direction that led to Notre Père, which was a comeback album of sorts

As a big Wemba supporter at the time, I thought it has some good songs (Barcelone, 5 dernières Jours, Reviens Amanda, Interfolk, Nzungu Nkinfuku). Tshimanga did a good job on Belle Inconnue also

From a sebene standpoint, the public really wasn’t feeling the very heavy focus on folk cris/danses. The générique starts off good, but falls apart after by being too choppy

I was surprised when he a gave big shout outs to Koffi/Werra on Nzungu Nkinfuku

Koffi and Wemba were still on good terms at the time, even after Koffi decided to leave AMC in 2007. Things only got messy when Koffi decided to sue Wemba because of an interview Wemba did with the late Francis Kakonde in 2009. In the interview, Wemba said that he didn’t understand why Kaka Yo and Nkunzi Lele flopped despite being good albums and claimed that all Congolese artists pirate their own albums. That’s what messed everything up and Papa Wemba even almost got arrested over it.



Wemba was also on good terms with Werrason, but they didn’t make it public or hype it up like other artists usually did. Wemba even performed at La Zamba Playa in 2009, during their annual summer fair where various artists and bands would perform. He also visited Werrason there once, I believe in either the same  2009 or 2010


I think Lambio Lambio’s absence, after he left in 2005, also played a role. They didn’t have someone to make noise and do crazy promotions for them on tv every week anymore. The remaining musicians were either a bit shy or not really motivated to make regular TV appearances. People might say it was probably due to the G5 revolution, but Emeneya and Koffi were still around, as well as his younger ‘brothers’ JB Mpiana and Werrason.


Anyway, if you look closely at Papa Wemba’s career, you’ll see there were also many moments when he was completely down. For example, just before he decided to settle permanently in Europe, the music scene was dominated by King Kester Emeneya, Bozi Boziana, Choc Stars & Zaiko Langa Langa.

The public, artists, and journalists used to claim that this was the reason why Koffi often created beefs  or why they became intense around the time he was about to release an album. For example, the clash with JB right before Effrakata or his renewed conflict with Wemba just before Droit de Veto. According them, those conflicts were all to make sure the spotlight was on him, as he was afraid people wouldn’t pay attention otherwise.

i think the lack europe may have played a role,many of the big names started living and the generation of the real bana malongi archange,savanet,boavida and co are the only in the entire viva history to not have gone to europe and papa wemba was not making much noise about his concerts in africa