Tanzanian band gears up for five-country Europe tour
TANZANIA: TANZANIAN band Abeneko and The Positive Mind are set to blaze Europe with thrilling live performances from June 7th this year rich in storytelling, entertaining and strong messages that help to address different issues in society.
Dubbed ‘Peace & Love Music Tour,’ the band is expected to perform in Germany, Denmark, Finland, Hungary and Latvia respectively.
They will be singing contemporary East African beats including singeli melodies, funk and Afro-fusion combined with traditional dances and rhythms.
This is a big platform to enhance Tanzania music which has already crossed boundaries a sign that there is massive improvement in this sector.
Also, through this big tour, the band will be flying the national flag wherever they will stop to perform thereby scaling up the popularity of this great country. Briefing the ‘Daily News’ recently in Dar es Salaam, the head of the band Isaac Abeneko insisted that they are ready to give out the best performance throughout the tour and are planning to depart Tanzania on June 2nd.
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“This is not the first time we are performing in Europe, even last year we went there though we only performed in Germany but this time, we are going to invade five countries with energetic performances. “This is good news to us because it shows that the band is growing and we keep on getting lots of invitations and aside from dishing out songs, we will simultaneously be promoting Tanzanian culture,” Abeneko said.
He also highlighted that the secret to earning such a lucrative music tour in Europe is the fact that they are well-represented in different platforms plus having a big network.
“It is all about networking and every time we perform, we meet new people who help us to keep expanding and this tour will help to open more opportunities for next year. “We also have a good communication system with our clients a thing that guarantees us chances to get many invitations from different countries…we do a lot of applications though some of them get rejected,” he said.
Despite most of their songs being sung in the Tanzanian popular language Kiswahili, Abeneko reiterated that it will not have any communication barriers with their fans who do not comprehend the language.
“Music is a universal language and what matters most is to sing good music and not the language used to produce the song as such, regardless of singing in Kiswahili, our audience will understand the content. “Music brings people together to celebrate life, culture and humanity and most importantly, to ensure that we maintain peace and love hence the reason why our tour has been christened Peace and Love. “We are encouraging people to embrace peace and justice and avoid entertaining wars because it causes massive human sufferings in the sense that you do not expect anything vital from places at war,” he said.
He continued: “We want to inspire other artists to grow in such a way that they should be ambassadors of peace, justice, environment and culture because we try to communicate about all these from the music we do.
“We should not just copy things from outside, we need to start respecting our cultural values because they help to define who we are since they were left behind by our ancestors.” In terms of peace and love which is the backbone of the tour, the band is set to raise awareness about the importance of bringing peace in war areas like Gaza, Congo and Ukraine.
Their music aims to promote Tanzanian traditional and contemporary music, dance and culture. The band is well known for their energetic and wonderful live performance with storytelling, entertaining and strong messages that address different issues in society.
“As musicians, we take a lead and say we must raise our voices since it is time to prioritise the well-being of all people, especially those who are most at risk…let us stand united in the pursuit of peace and justice for all.
With their new music, the band strives to bring only good, unifying vibes to their audience who can enjoy the joy of East African tunes as well as listen to the smooth sounds reminding all of our humanity, responsibilities and power in making this world of a better place through action and music.
Some of the major festivals in East Africa that Abeneko & The Positive Mind have performed are Sauti za Busara, Bayimba Festival and Karibu music festival not forgetting having music tours in Zanzibar, Kenya, Uganda, Germany, Denmark, Finland and the USA since 2017.
During their latest summer tour in Germany 2023 they participated in music festivals like Durchlüften – Open Air im Schlüterhof in Berlin, played concerts at venues like Ufa-Fabrik, the Swag Jam at Badehaus as well as the Afrika-Tage Nürnberg or a festival in the City of Cologne.
Meanwhile, the following is the full schedule for this year’s tour as it kicks off on June 7th at Ufa Fabrik Berlin, Germany before heading to perform at the Pan Africa Music Festival, Aarhus, Denmark on June 15th.
On June 29th, they will perform at Swahili Cultural Festival, Hamburg, Germany then on July 12th, they will storm at Fest Afrika – Tampere, Finland while on June 13th, the team will entertain fans at Laba bada festival, Latvia.
Again, on July 19th, the band will storm the Afrika Festival, in Potsdam, Germany while on July 20th it will be the turn of Denmark fans who will congregate at the Jazz Festival, in Aarhus in Denmark.
Thereafter, the band will invade Durchlüften Festival, Berlin in Germany on July 27th before winding up their thrilling mission at Sziget Festival in Hungary from August 7th to 12th.
