Koffi Olomide

First coming to prominence as a romantic crooner in the 1980s, Koffi Olomide founded the influential world music group Quartiers Latin and became one of Africa's leading modern pop kings with his own genre known as 'tcha-tcho'. Growing up in a middle class family in the Congolese capital Kinshasha, Antoine Mumba started singing nursery rhymes and making up his own songs at a very young age. Then, in his teens, a neighbour began teaching him guitar and encouraged his songwriting. His family urged him to pursue his academic studies though and he earned a degree in Business and Economics at Bordeaux University and a masters in Mathematics at the University of Paris.

He recorded a few songs with his brother which lef to minor, local hits, which in turn led to him joining Papa Wemba's band Viva La Musica in the late 1970s as a songwriter and backing singer, recording his debut solo album 'Ngounda' in 1983 and making collaborative records with Fafa de Molokai and Yakini Kiesse. Filling his music with calypso guitar licks, Congolese rhumbas and soukous rhythms, he started Quartier Latin International in 1986 and found global popularity with singles 'Kiki Ewing' and 'Ngobila' and when he started adding electronics and dance beats to the mix a new sound that he called 'tcha-tcho' began to take shape.

As a solo artist he released 1990s albums 'Les Prisonniers Dorment', 'Noblesse Oblige', 'Le Haute de Gamme' and 'Loi' and became the main figurehead of the Congo's music scene with a loyal fanbase across Africa whom he called Koffietes. Known for his bravado and charisma, he also toured the US with Quartier Latin for the first time in 1994 and continued to lead their ever-changing line-up on popular albums 'V12', 'Magie' and 'Affaire d'Etat', before winning four KORA Awards in 2002 thanks to his triumphant return to form on 'Effrakata'. He celebrated 30 years as an artist in 2015 with the album '13ieme Apotre'.