Concerts & Events

Mathew Tembo is an award-winning Afro-Pop musician hailing from Zambia in Southern Africa. He is an important ambassador of Zambian music culture both in Zambia where he is originally from and abroad.

Tembo has toured and recorded all over the world. While touring in Europe, he produced hits including “Nelar” and “Kumalya Ndimu”, both from his second album “Save My Soul” a reggae album which was recorded in the Netherlands in 2001. He was awarded best Afro-fusion for the song “Nandunge” from the album, “Anthem”, his first album to feature Zambia's indigenous musical instruments, at the 2008 Born and Bred Awards in Zambia.

Originally a reggae singer only, he began playing Afro-Pop when he had an eye-opening experience while touring Europe in 2004. When he was doing a presentation about the music he played then at the Rhythmic Conservatory in Copenhagen, Denmark, one of the professors from the conservatory asked him why he played reggae and not African music when he was from Africa. From that experience, a whole new world of musical possibilities came to life for him. On return to Zambia that same year, he began a self- taught exploration of traditional Zambia's/African musical instruments such as the silimba (a home-made marimba), which he made himself, kalimba (mbira/kalimba), and kalumbu (a one-stringed instrument). Incorporating the use of these instruments into his original compositions, Mathew sings mostly in Chinsenga (language of Nsenga people) and Chichewa (language of the Chewa people) and weaves syncopation, repetition, polyrhythm and call-and-response into his music creating an enjoyable yet powerful style he calls Chachacha (redemption songs).