Ethiopian Music icon Zeritu Getahun passed away

borkena, Ethiopian News
October 11,2017

Ethiopian music icon Zeritu Getahun passed away today in Addis Ababa. She had been ailing for many months.

Speaking of contributions, Zeritu left a legacy for Ethiopians. The popular song “Enkutatash” – which is like the jingel Bells of Ethiopia except that it is for the Ethiopian new year- is her work.

In addition, she is also very popular for “Tiztan be posta” song. Zeritu was first hired at Hager Fikir Theatre as a teenager and served for many many years.
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In just three days, this is the second bad news for Ethiopian traditional music fans; Hailemichael Demissie died on October 9 after a tragic car accident.

Unfortunately, like many cases of important Ethiopian figures who contributed positively to Ethiopia, Zeritu virtually lived destitution in recent years; she did not even have a decent place to stay. And of course, Ethiopian government abandoned her.

To his credit, talk show host Josy “surprised” the late Zeritu with a decent place to live, after he managed to solicit support from the business community and sponsors, during Ethiopian New Year edition of his program. Sadly, Zeritu did not live long in the house.

Singers like Zeritu were special to Ethiopia in the sense that they nurtured, through their works, Ethiopian cultural values and patriotism.

She will be missed by Ethiopians and borkena page would like to express condolence to her family and her fans.

The following video is from EBC archive

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