Artist Detailed Info: Meklit

Meklit (born Meklit Hadero) is an Ethiopian-born singer and songwriter based in San Francisco, California. She is known for her soulful performing style, and for combining jazz, folk, and East African influences in her music. Born in Addis Ababa, she was raised in the U.S. and attended college at Yale, where she studied political science.

Meklit sings in English and Amharic. She fled with her doctor parents to the US in hopes of escaping the years of violence that followed Ethiopia's 1974 revolution.

Raised in Iowa and Brooklyn, Meklit sang in choirs growing up and was introduced to the jazz vocalist Billie Holiday as an adolescent. Although she earned a degree in Political Science from Yale, Hadero continued to sing and eventually settled into the vibrant arts scene of San Fransisco, where she took vocal and guitar lessons. Finding a home at the local Red Poppy Art House, Hadero began to perform and found her own sound, and teamed up with like minded guitarist Todd
Brown in the Jazz, Roots, and African music-Influenced band Nefasha Ayer. Hadero released her debut solo album, On A Day LikeThis..., in 2010.

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