Ali Birra

Über Ali Birra

Ali Birra was the towering icon of Oromo music and one of the most beloved artists in all of Ethiopia. He recorded the first album in the history of Oromo music in 1971 and went on to release more than 250 songs across Oromo, Amharic, Somali, Arabic, and Afar, making him the country's most linguistically versatile star. A poet and multi-instrumentalist, he used his songs to celebrate Oromo culture and to protest the oppression of his people, becoming a symbol of national pride until his death in 2022.