SAMPA THE GREAT - AFRICA DAY LIVE PERFORMANCE

Sampa The Great has shared a striking new live performance to commemorate Africa Day, which falls on May 25.

The Zambian-Australian artist live-streamed the performance last night Australia time for Africadelic Festival’s virtual program on Dutch music venue Paradiso Amsterdam’s Instagram account, alongside other musicians of the African diaspora around the world.

Now, she’s shared the full high-definition performance on YouTube – watch it above:

The rapper and singer-songwriter – real name Sampa Tembo – began the performance with a brief acknowledgement of the coronavirus pandemic, and what it meant for the African diaspora.

“Right now, it’s a vulnerable time for a lot of people. We’ve truly seen the privilege of where we are, even though we’re not home. The freedoms we can afford to have that a lot of people at home don’t have,” she said.

“While we’re in this vulnerable time and feeling all this anxiety, we just hope to share our souls and our hearts with you and hope to give some sort of comfort to you.”

Sampa was joined by her sister and longtime collaborator Mwanjé Tembo and Taudra on backing vocals, with pre-recorded keyboards from David Taafua. They performed ‘Freedom’, ‘Mwana’ and ‘Leading Us Home’, all from Sampa’s 2019 debut studio album ‘The Return’.

Africa Day 2019 saw Sampa perform on the continent for the first time in Lusaka, the capital of her birth country Zambia. On ‘The Return’, she sang in the Bantu language, Bemba, as well as South African slang. That album won her the Australian Music Prize, making Sampa the Great the first person to ever win the $30,000 prize twice.

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