Nhatty Man
With a mesmerising stage performance and a huge smile always intact, Nhatty lacks anything but energy. Nhatty’s life has gone in a million ways he never anticipated. After dropping out from a civil engineering degree in his second year, he started a new journey as a DJ. This entrance into the music industry sparked a new desire to become a songwriter, penning the hit song Alekafam for well known Ethiopian artist Zeritu Kebede, amongst others.
Nhatty soon found his own voice singing with the legendary Ethiopian band Express, which propelled his career as a singer and found him fronting numerous bands and playing many of the clubs around Addis Abeba. Now garnering a solid fan base around the country and featuring with some of the biggest name artists within Africa, it wasn’t long before he became a household name, after his first single Amrogne hit the Ethiopian market.
Nhatty’s debut album, Man, dropped on February 16 2011. The album combined a mix of R&B, reggae, rock and local Ethiopian rhythms and received a Leza Radio Show Listeners Choice Award for Best Album of the Year 2011-2012. Following the album’s success, Nhatty toured nationally and throughout Africa, America, Australia, Europe and the Middle East. Since the release of Man, Nhatty released another album and DVD in 2012, featuring popular Nigerian reggae artist Ras Kimono and remixes of his previous hit songs, along with new and original compositions.
Nhatty was nominated at the first East African Music Awards, where he performed alongside Congolese legend Papa Wemba, Burundian star Kidum and Kenyan pop singer Jaguar, to name a few. He was the first Horn of Africa artist to perform on Big Brother Amplified in South Africa, which was broadcast across the continent.
Following on from his own releases, Nhatty Man headed back into the studio in Maryland USA with the award winning One Vision Productions, to write and produce an album for emerging Ethiopian singer Betty G. The album was released in 2015 to great acclaim and has received significant airplay and coverage throughout Ethiopia and the Diaspora. Throughout this process, Nhatty continued his career as a producer and singer, releasing a number of hit singles including Wine n Go Down and Fim Esat.
Nhatty’s musical movements have now found him living in Melbourne, Australia. Since relocating in 2014, he has already built new audiences through performing at the Melbourne Festival, the Workers Club, the Evelyn and the Gasometer Hotel. He has performed live on radio, with Ethio-Jazz band The Lalibelas, as part of PBS FM’s Studio 5 Live series and collaborated with local bands Ras Jah Know, Royalty Noise and Amaru Tribe. He participated in the Collaborative Radio Project with PBS FM & Multicultural Arts Victoria, creating his debut audio-story which was nominated in two categories at the CBAA Awards.
In 2015 he released a single and music video with The Lalibelas and is currently working on an international album, featuring collaborations with musicians he has met throughout his worldwide journey, set for release early 2016.
Nhatty throws himself wholeheartedly into whatever it is he is doing and believes giving it all you have got, is the only way to success.