Sholo Mwamba is a multi-award winning figure in Singeli, a genre-bending, uptempo musical style that was born in the backstreets of Dar es Salaam but has grown to become a mainstream Tanzanian sound.

His high-energy performances and extravagant stage garb, coupled with his spitfire vocal delivery, have been instrumental in defining Singeli. His widespread popularity in his country and across the East African region has seen him perform for fans on the streets as well as heads of state.

Singeli evolved from mchiriku, with Wazaramo coastal sounds, segere and bongo flava in the mix, to create an exciting and energetic electro style that is uniquely Tanzanian. Its rhythms are fast-paced, loopy and repetitive, with rapid-fire vocals articulating often humorous but pertinent stories over rolling, percussive beats.

Singeli is not a new movement. It started around fifteen years ago in the ghetto communities of Dar es Salaam. Whilst expanding its reach to dominate dance floors across the region, singeli has now moved on from social outcast status to being a source of national pride. Seif Mwinyijuma Haji, more popularly known as Sholo Mwamba, is a multi-award winning artist from Dar es Salaam and one of Tanzania’s greatest singeli pioneers. He was first inspired whilst accompanying by his late grandfather, who used to lead a Wazaramo traditional ngoma group.

He started experimenting with the more electronic sounds of singeli in 2022 with support from his father, who saw music was a way to distract his son from negative influences such as drugs and criminality. Since then, Sholo Mwamba has composed more than a hundred songs including Sembe Tembele, PolePole, Kupendwa Raha, Ghetto la Bibi and Kazi Kazi, featuring Professor J, which greatly boosted his popularity in the music industry.

On the more recent hit ‘Kamaliza’ he also collaborated with Harmonize. Sholo Mwamba appreciates the positive contributions towards African music of other musicians including Wanne Star, Remmy Ongala and Fela Kuti. He looks forward to the time when singeli hits worldwide and thanks Sauti za Busara for their support in this direction.