Zaiko Langa Langa is a legend of Congolese music—and by extension African music itself. Founded in 1969, they took the era’s classic rumba and morphed it into a new, high-energy electric guitar-and-synthesizer sound whose influence can still be heard across the continent and diaspora today. Their influence can hardly be overstated, yet they never made the trip to play in the U.S. until now.
The band is making their New York debut on Nov. 27 at (le) Poisson Rouge in Greenwich Village, and Afropop wants to send you—yes, you!—to see this historic moment. The venue has generously given us a pair of free tickets for a lucky listener, and all he or she has to do is email us.
To win, send an email to info@afropop.org with “Zaiko Langa Langa” in the subject line.
As our producer Banning Eyre told founding member Nyoka Longo in an interview last week, Banning saw the band on his first trip to Africa in the mid-'80s, and here, 30 years into Afropop’s existence, Banning has never forgotten the experience, and now you can see why.
For more info on the convoluted history of Zaiko, click here.
