Olivier Tshimanga
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Olivier Tshimanga

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Discography

Olivier Tshimanga worked on more than 220 released albums in France and Congo, did the artistic realisation of Papa Wemba's latest LP "ye te ho", in wich he also plays all the guitars.

In 2007 he wrote and recorded the song Babiki for the short movie "Saving Mum and Dad" by Kartik Singh.

Olivier is working on his first LP, "Tala N'Deke", to be released in the end of 2007.
Some of the songs are already on his myspace, streaming only, with some live videos with his musicians.

The song "Ah! Congo" is still played on radios around Kinshasa...

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Bio

Olivier Tshimanga was born in 1983 in Kinshasa, the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Ex-Zaire). He began playing the guitar in his childhood years, listening to great Congolese masters like Franco and Pepe Felix Manuaku, until the church’s choir director noticed him playing under a mango tree and asked him to join the choir. Olivier started performing live when he was 12 years old, his voice and guitar resounding in the churches of Kinshasa.

When he was a teenager, he joined the INA (Congolese National Institute of Arts) where he stayed for five years, to learn the universal language of music. His mother, Fololo Rose, was not so happy about it, thinking artists and delinquents were basically the same thing.

Aged 18, while he was playing Carlos Santana’s “Europa” in a concert, the great Congolese poet Lutumba Simaro came up on stage and asked him to join the late Franco’s mythical band : the TP OK Jazz.

Later on, annoyed by the political situation of his country, Olivier wrote the song “Ah! Congo”, a hard criticism of Congo’s authority, in which he beggs the people of Congo to wake up. The song had a real success in Kinshasa, and soon caused him some very serious troubles, that led him to leave Kinshasa for Paris in 2003.

In Paris, he played with the greatest African musicians staying there, such as Papa Wemba, Manu Dibango, Ray Lema, Singuila, Rido Bayonne, Meiway, Sam Manguana, Zao and Lokua Kanza, his big brother, his master “from afar”.

At 24 years old, Olivier is now working on his first album: “Tala N’Deke”(look at the bird). While deeply African, his music is influenced by many different styles, artists and common people. Prolific songwriter, Olivier has written more than 100 songs over the years in RDC and Paris. A colourful and amazing work, served by a unique voice, addictive at the first listening.

The bird is taking off.