ማህሙድ እህመድ > ዝምታ ነው መልሴ | Mahmoud Ahmed > Zemeta New Melse

By 1978, censorship laws prevented Mahmoud from releasing his music on vinyl and so he switched to releasing cassettes. In the 1980s, Mahmoud operated his own music store in Addis Ababa's Piazza district while continuing his singing career. With many Ethiopian refugees living abroad, Mahmoud became one of the first modern Ethiopian music makers to perform in the United States on a 1980-1981 tour with the Wallias Band, Gétatchew Kassa, and Webeshed Fisseha. Mahmoud soon began releasing records with the Roha Band and became popular in diaspora communities.

In 1986, Mahmoud's music reached a larger western audience when the Belgian label Crammed Discs released the collection Ere Mela Mela drawn from two Kaifa LPs Mahmoud had recorded in Addis with the Ibex Band a decade earlier. Ethiopia was making headlines in the west because of political repression and famine, and the contrasting tone of Mahmoud 's first international release received much acclaim in the burgeoning world music community. Mahmoud gained even greater international popularity in the late 1990s after Buda Musique launched the Éthiopiques series on compact disc. This led to new recordings and tours in Europe and the United States with Boston's Either/Orchestra and Badume's Band. Though he has made his home in Addis and works with a number of NGOs and philanthropic causes, he continues to tour internationally, performing concerts both for world music fans as well as the Ethiopian diaspora.

In 2007, Mahmoud won a BBC World Music Award.

ማህሙድ አህመድ > ዝምታ ነው መልሴ | Mahmoud Ahmed > Zemeta New Melse

ኢትዮጵያ ለዘላለም ትኑር ::

ማህሙድ አህመድ > ዝምታ ነው መልሴ | Mahmoud Ahmed > Zemeta New Melse

Ethiopian Music ; Yoftahe’s Collection