As we are all returning to life in close contact and Djs begin to work again, the drought of new mixes on SoundCloud and Youtube specifically seems to be showing signs of an end. I’ve definitely noticed that the rate at which new mixes have been churned out by Djs significantly dropped during lockdown. A lot of Djs favoured live Facebook sessions instead and it … Continue reading My Top 5 Mixes online
Hugo Silva, known as DJ Hugo Boss is an internationally recognised DJ of Mozambican descent, raised in Portugal and based in London. Apart from music he has also ventured into organising festivals namely Maningue Nice Festival and its 2021 edition is live, you can keep up with updates HERE and you can connect with Hugo here. Hugo Gave us his TOP 10 GHETTO ZOUK SONGS OF … Continue reading DJ HUGO BOSS: Top 10 Ghetto Zouk of 2019
CKF 2019 – the festival that knows how to entertain December’s dance festival highlight, as we are used to by now, was the Christmas Kizomba Festival, in Lisbon. For those who don’t know, CKF owes its success to the combined talent and efforts of the Fantastic Four (Paulo & Lanna and Miguel & Susana). ————————————————————————————————————— Highlights If you don’t read until the end, here is … Continue reading CKF 2019 – Review
Intro I AM SEMBA 2019 –The latest contribution to the, Milan-based, event’s legacy and to the appetite for Semba in the Kizomba community? Our opinion below: ————————————————————————————————————— Synopsis If you don’t read to the end, here is what you need to know: On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being a completely negative experience and 10 being an overwhelmingly positive one, this year’s Semba … Continue reading I AM SEMBA 2019 – Review
Budapest Kizomba Connection – A festival heavily reliant on its venue location wow-factor and a history of successful editions. BKC9 edition promised to continue a tradition of epic music, superb location, great vibe and an overall unique dancing experience. It succeeded on some fronts, however, in an over-saturated festival market, compromising on key elements, such as music, puts the, relatively expensive, festival, in the heart … Continue reading Budapest Kizomba Connection 2019 – REVIEW
Victoria attended 14 festivals in 2018 so we thought she’d be a great person to ask* for her TOP 5 Festivals of 2018, a much needed female perspective to give balance. For many people who don’t have a full view of the growing scene in America, she also re-directs focus in what is currently a rather Euro-centric festival scene. *It probably should be noted that … Continue reading TOP 5 KIZOMBA FESTIVALS 2018 BY VICTORIA GORDON
“Maravilha” means “wonder” in Portuguese and one can certainly make the case that this band is arguably the 8th wonder of the semba world. During the first part of the Angolan civil war (1975-1992), music production in-country was virtually defunct. The main record labels simply had no means to survive due to the lack of government subsidies. At that time, only a handful of musicians … Continue reading BANDA MARAVILHA (aka The Semba Ambassadors)
One cannot expect somebody who’s never been to Angola – or knows nothing about its troubled past – to fully grasp how the simple act of dancing, singing and socializing has always served as collective catharsis for its people. As Achille Mbembe, highly respected Cameroonian philosopher and political theorist puts it: “Music has the capacity to marry soul and matter. Indeed, in Africa, music has … Continue reading 10 WAYS TO HONOUR THE KIZOMBA CULTURE
In light of several heated discussions held on Facebook recently regarding what’s kizomba and what’s urban, we decided to post 2 videos that hopefully illustrate that these are 2 different dances; each has its own distinct elements in terms of upper body posture, lower body movement, footwork, musicality, ginga (or lack thereof), pongue, precision and rigidity of execution, connection to the partner (or lack thereof), … Continue reading KIZOMBA vs URBAN
1) Often I hear people using the term “Traditional Kizomba” or even just “traditional”. So to correct this confusion, there is no prefix for this word, and i believe your desire like mine is to have proper correct information about something you learn and love. It’s simply, and beautifully, “Kizomba” which means “party” in Kimbundu, which is one of many Bantu languages you can hear … Continue reading 6 Misconceptions About Kizomba
