Betty G’s day of glory
If you listen to Betty G or watch her performance on stage, you will appreciate the songstress from Ethiopia. Born as Bruktwait Getahun in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the upcoming artiste who stages as Betty G is sure on her way to stardom, having taken the Ethiopian music scene by storm with her themed renditions and stage craft.
In her early days, she spent most of her time in school amid her passion for music, which was born with her. Her perseverance brought her closer to notable Ethiopian artistes, especially Theodros Kassahun (Teddy afro), who mentored her, and Ras Kimono, late Nigerian reggae maestro to create awareness to global warming.
Betty G is interesting to watch on stage because of her stage craft, ability to sing in French, English and Amharic, which gives her an edge over other African musicians in the international market.
Again, she is interesting to watch or listen to her music because she infuses her Ethiopian heritage in her work, and by so doing, further exposing the richness and beauty of her culture to the ward.
She is rightfully the Ethiopian music and culture ambassador. Her creative ingenuity is evident in her numerous works such as “Manew Fitsum”, an album she released in November 2015. Since the release of that debut album Betty G has been on the rise in Ethiopia, Africa and globally because 13-tracks album was an instant hit and won her many fans.
The songstress furthers her quest to become the best female voice in Africa with her recent album, which shows her uniquely captivating repertoire.
Entitled “Wegegta”, the album consists of 13 songs across many music genres: contemporary, traditional Ethiopian songs, soft rock, and pop.
As expected, the ef- forts she put in the album“wegegta” paid off with multiple nominations just from that single album at the All Africa Music Awards Ghana 2018. With five nominations including Artiste of the Year, Album of the Year, Best African Jazz, Revelation of the African Continent, as well as the Best Female Artiste in Eastern Africa, she was among the artistes with most nominations at the awards.
At the grand finale of the awards, which held at the Accra International Convention Centre, Betty G, broke record as the most awarded artiste of the evening with three awards, and the first time an Ethiopian is achieving such feat at AFRIMA.
She surprised the audience and, especially established music acts when she beat many known musicians to emerge as the Best Female Artiste in Eastern Africa with her song ‘Mengedegna’, as well as, winning the Revelation of the African Continent category. The Ethiopian music sensation caught the most attention of the audience when she was announced as the winner of the Album of the Year category with her album ‘Wegegta’, and her highest music award so far.
Well, she has come of age.
While appreciating her continent-wide fans for voting her to victory, she noted at the awards the mere making the nomination list in five categories was significant for her. On her emergence as winner in three categories, she said it was huge achievement for her person.