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2CD BOX
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STCD 3037-38CD
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2010 release. Mbilia Bel was incontestably the most popular female singer in all of Africa in the 1980s. Her voice was a limpid soprano that proclaimed both innocence and knowledge with alluring hints of sass. She was also known for her beauty and her fashion elegance. She was truly a diva. Dancing and singing in a chorus line on a television show when she was 22, she caught the eye of Tabu Ley Rochereau, the great Congolese singer, songwriter and bandleader, who called the studio and hired her on the spot. The song he wrote for her to sing with him was an instant hit, and that was just the beginning. Between 1982 and 1987 she made a dozen albums with Tabu Ley and his top-flight band, Afrisa International, for Ley's Genidia production company, which licensed them to European and American labels. Songs such as "Eswi Yo Wapi," "Beyanga" and "Boya Ye" were hugely popular throughout Africa and beyond, and Mbilia Bel and Tabu Ley (a married couple as well as professional partners) toured the world, including America. Bel Canto: Best of the Genidia Years is a boxed set comprising two CDs and a 44-page booklet full of photos, essays and translations of the song lyrics. It includes all of Mbilia Bel's hits along with equally delightful tracks from her Genidia albums.
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