MUSIC (LingalaPop): Incredible Yondo Sister's Mbuta Mutu

Incredible Yondo Sister is not so well known now outside the two Congos, as she once was. And even within them, her magnetic presence and appeal seem to have waned in recent years. Despite all that, she remains one of the very finest Congolese (nay, African) artistes, male or female, of any generation -- past and present. You just have to watch one of her video clips to know. 

Among her best are Perdue de Vue, Madi, Maweke, Mwana Kenta, Wapi Yo, and Mbuta Mutu. But you must also see her inspired avant-garde piece titled Duniya, which she sings in Swahili. It is the second song (which runs from 6:10 to 11:14 minutes) in the 8-piece retrospective published in 1992, a link to which I provide at the bottom of this page.

I choose to comment briefly here on only one of the above-mentioned songs: Mbuta Mutu (2015 version). The clip is, for me, a superb example of Yondo Sister's daring and absolutely absorbing artistry. In it, she dances with no restraint at all, as if possessed by the very words she sings and the very tunes her ears and lithe body attend to. She goes, in the end, totally wild here. Congo wild. She, the Great Rainforest Queen, rules a 'wilderness' world of funky sight and sound! If you haven't seen Yondo Sister, I dare say, you haven't seen anyone.

Click here to watch the Mbuta Mutu clip (2015 version)

I can confidently say, as I conclude, that every ear and every eye that Yondo Sister -- this '80s/'90s Girl, this female sapeur -- 'touched' with her voice, and her beguiling dance moves, surely none such remained ever the same. We are all the richer, who have heard her, and seen what she could do with her supple body; indeed, what magic became it. She is, and will forever be, at the very heart of #LingalaPop.

WATCH: A 1992 8-Clip Retrospective on Yondo Sister's Life as a Performing Artist

WATCH: A 2013 version of Yondo Sister's Mbuta Mutu

READ: Yondo Sister: A Biographical Sketch




NOTE: Much of the material in the second paragraph above first featured in my blog post titled LingalaPop, Volume 7.