I don't know exactly the release date of the album. But somewhere in Spring 2001, Zaiko's EP Feeling came on the market.





Feeling came on the market in a period that people started to say that Zaiko started stagnating and being finished. After the release of Poison, which was a an album that was well appreciated, but lacked proper promotion. People came on a moment that wasn't moving forward.  To bring some fresh air, a serie of recruitment of new singers, atalaku's and dancers started like in 1997. Former Wenge BCBG atalaku Bidjana Champion would get recruited and 10 new dancers in the image of Nouvelle Ecriture's Fioti Fioti's.The singing section would see the arrival of Sterlly Mikobi, Prince Bella, Thiro Mulunda and Jose Père Elanga, all coming from Delta Force and singer Marcel Bakenda who had a past with Bozi's Anti Choc and Dindo Yogo's Ngwaka Ayé. A VHS would come on the market called KFOR, in reference to the NATO-peace mission in Kosovo, where the new singing-line up would get presented. The new singing-line up being nicknamed "Attaque Lazer"



from 1:29:38 min the new singing-line up

The same VHS included vists of Papa Wemba, Bozi Boziana, Koffi Olomidé and Werrason at Zaiko's headquater Kimpwanza. Koffi and Werrason visit at Kimpwanza created alot of buzz at that time, as it was seen as the reconcilation between Koffi and Werrason, but the press claiming that it was all fake and just for common interests. Werrason would sing Coco Madimba being backed by Fally Ipupa, Babia Ndonga, Lola Muana and Mustapha Nkori and a part of Zaiko & guitarists Japonais Maladi and Patient Kusangila. 20 years later the extract would get uploaded by DJOMEGADT on youtube and a debate starting about Fally being part of Maison Mère before joining Quartier Latin. that kept going on for years, people not knowing that it was just Quartier Latin backing Werrason.

The same year Nyoka Longo announced the recording of the EP Feeling, which was meant to get released in december 2000, but would get the delayed. During the recording session there was beef restarted between Quartier Latin and Zaiko, where the Zaiko-camp would attack Koffi Olomidé for trying to recruit Daniel from them. The censure commission would at some point convoquer Koffi Olomidé and Nyoka Longo at their office to know the reason of conflict and ordering them to let musiicans attack each other on tv.. The conflict starting due to former Zaiko dancer Nana Mulenga joining Quartier Latin her joining Quartier Latin created alot of publicity and Koffi at some point asking if there weren't other musicians of Zaiko that would like to join Quartier Latin, as he wanted to create dream team to perform at Parc des Princes. Nana then giving a list of musicians that weren't happy in Zaiko and complaining about their way of living and Koffi contacting Daniel, but late Daniel refusing the offer, saying that he was still in Zaiko When the story got known, newspapers would write negative articles about Koffi, saying that after distroying Bendoson's band by recruiting Ramazani Fulutini na Christian na Nzenze, him wanting to steal Daniel



In December 2000, ACMCO voted Bana OK and Zaiko Langa Langa as best bands of the year. Their choice created alot of contreversy, as the public excepted Wenge Maison Mère to be voted as best band of the year due to the succes they had with Solola Bien and their team. ACMCO at their side giving the reason that Bana OK and Zaiko got the title, because they were the most stable bands of the year having no departure (them forgetting that Nana Mulenga left Zaiko at the start of 2000). It had been said that they just decided to choose Bana OK and Zaiko, due to journalists that were backing Wenge Maison Mère and Wenge BCBG having big discussions and fighting each other. It was already hard to choose the best star of the year, creating two special category to vote both Werrason and JB Mpiana separetly to satisfy the two camps and having peace among the journalists.



In April 2001, Zaiko Langa Langa finally released the EP Feeling. The generique Daniel was a succes and song Moti-Pole Pole of bass-player Motingia Tunga as well, where each singer would do a vocal with the cri's of Papy Cocaine and Bidjana, who would years later get used in 19 Minutes de Nguasuma, as the cri's were among Feeling's highlights. In the same period of it's release Deo Brando who had a key-role in the singing-section of Zaiko and was among Nyoka Longo's favorites decided to leave the band to join Quartier Latin, which was a huge blow to alot of fans. Despite his departure, Zaiko kept going. A few months after Feeling's release the VHS with videoclips came on the market. Having two bonus-tracks, an instrumental where the new dancers would show their choreography called Kuvu and an instrumenta called Extral where Zaiko's male dancers would show their dancing-skills



The same year, singer Shulay joined who is Evoloko Lay's son. Zaiko would also see the arrival of Manda Chante's solist Tshanda, who had a past with gospel band Vox Dei, who used to play Zaiko.

Zaiko's fans in Europe started wondering when Zaiko would return to Europe, as they hadn't performed there anymore since 2001. With Koffi Olomidé and Werrason having having performed at Bercy and artists like Papa Wemba and JB Mpiana being on theri way to do their show there as well, Europe-based fans were requesting Nyoka Longo to do a show there as well. But Nyoka Longo calming them down through interviews and meeting-ups in Kinshasa with influent fans/donors to start with an event at Zénith de Paris or Olympia first.




Later that year, it was announced that Zaiko would tour in Canada, but the tour was postponed towards the end of 2001, turning it into a series of dates in Europe, Canada, and the US. However, the tour was once again cancelled. Months later, it was announced that Felix Petit would let Zaiko perform at the Zénith de Paris in July 2001. It was received with great euphoria and the national press began heavy promotion. But the event ended up by getting cancelled. Musicians and Zaiko fans pointed fingers at Koffi Olomidé and Zacharie Bababaswe, claiming that the event did not happen because they had informed the Schengen embassy that Zaiko was bringing “ngulus” to Europe, with Nyoka Longo even giving a press conference about it. Koffi Olomidé himself denied these accusations in several interviews.


However, at the same time stories were spread that the concertpromoter didn't pay the rent for the hall on time, which made the event getting cancelled. Concertpromoter Felix Petit would say in official declarations that the show was cancelled due to logistical challenges like the missed Triple Olympia event of Koffi Olomidé that was meant to take place two weeks earlier. The event of Zaiko would finally get scheduled for September 7th.  Zaiko in meantine already started recording sessions of the new-album Eureka in Kinshasa at Studio Meko. In meantime there were rumors about Nyoka Longo wanting musicians of the old guard like Jimmy Yaba, Petit Poisson and Shango to stay in Europe to replace them with youngsters upon their return from Zénith.




On September 7th 2002, Zaiko finally did their Zénith which was alot mediatized on the Congolese media with an Europe-tour following up.

Did Zaiko have a respectable audience size for Zenith? Nobody talks about that concert like others they've had before and after. Personally, I felt like their heart wasn't in the performance, as if they performed Zenith due to public expectation than direct competition. Does that make sense?

Do you think Deo Brando made the best decision to quit and join to Quartier Latin? He went from arguably number two in Zaiko to middle class talent, because of Fally, Bouro, Montana, Jipson, and Lola cementing themselves 1-2 years prior. Don't get me wrong, he had plenty of great vocals and received a significant pay that wasn't happening at Zaiko based on Koffi's reputation. I'm just curious how artists make their calculations on whether to stay loyal or jump ship, it's always interesting to see!

It makes me wonder if Daniel had regrets watching Deo Brando be apart of Effrakata, ADE, and Monde Arabe. Zaiko found a comfortable stride, but you can tell they've never made big noise since. At the same time, Koffi will make recruitments to undermine potential competition, but sideline the talent (Beniko & Rocky from Zaiko). I'm sure back then that Daniel saw the VHS where those musicians were rehearsing Attentat, but absence for Bercy, Force de Frappe, and the VHS for their return back to Kinshasa.

There were alot of people at Zenith de Paris during Zaiko’s show but it wasn’t sold out. It’s just that people have alot of respect for Zaiko and Nyoka Longo, because if it were other bands that were heavily involved in polemique, then they would have made fun of it, like it was the case with JB Mpiana’s Bercy. The national press used to praise the show alot. However, the public and people  in bars, restaurants were criticizing the show and Zaiko’s new team. They used to say the new musicians weren’t on Zaiko’s level. You had also people who were calling it the worst Zénith ever.

Deo Brando was one of Nyoka Longo’s favorites, but not his number two. There was also the late Doudou Adoula, who had known Nyoka Longo even before joining Zaiko, and singer Adamo Ekula, who remained despite the entire vocal section that recorded the albums Sans Issue and Backline Lesson One being fired. Some people say that Adamo influenced Nyoka Longo on that decisio, and many musicians often point fingers at him for always snitching on them to Nyoka Longo. Nyoka Longo trusted Adamo and Doudou the most because of the loyalty and brotherhood they had towards him. It’s not for nothing that Nyoka Longo invited Adamo for the show at La Madeleine.




In my opinion he didn’t make a mistake by joining Quartier Latin. Because with them he got the chance to get twice into the United States (2001 & 2002), performed 3 times at Zénith de Paris (2001 & 2x 2003) and did a packed Stade des Martyrs. The song ‘Tous Pepele’ from Affaire d’Etat is still in people head, while many people already forgot about the song ‘Carpe Diem’ that he released in Zaiko and ‘Que Dieu Soit Loué’within Anti Choc. Only people from that era and Zaiko’s fans still know about Carpe Diem. .





I believe that Daniel saw joining Quartier Latin as a form of suicide for his career. He was Zaiko’s main lead guitarist and journalists were often hyping him up in articles for the way he was playing sebene during concerts. Other bandleaders, such as Bozi Boziana and Papa Wemba, also recognized his talent. At that time, he was essentially the only lead guitarist in Zaiko, since Volvo was in Europe. There may have been an unknown backup lead guitarist, as Congolese bands at that time would have at least 30 musicians.

While in Quartier Latin there were already Felly Tyson, Ridens Makosso and Ramazani Fulutini, who had just joined. There were also other unknown guitarists waiting for an opportunity, occasionally getting a chance to play rhythm guitar on one/two songs during public rehearsals and concerts, before disappearing after a few weeks or months with their guitar-partitions staying within Quartier Latin.