Stanbic Bank Zambia Limited has announced that Sampa the Great, the singer, rapper and song writer, will be performing live in concert in Lusaka on Friday 25 November, 2022.
Zambia’s very own award-winning Hip–Hop star will release her highly-anticipated third studio album and perform at the Music Club in Lusaka alongside critically-acclaimed recording artists including, Chef 187, Natasha Chansa and DJ Switcher.
Born in Ndola on August 9, 1993, Sampa Tembo, known professionally as Sampa the Great, has been based in Australia between 2014-2020 where she has already racked up 3 stellar albums: Birds & the Bee9 released in 2017, winning her the Australian music prize – a US $30,000 cash award modelled on the Mercury prize; 2019’s The Return & the soon-to-be-launched As Above, So Below.
Her latest album earned Sampa international stardom when her song, Never Forget, featuring Chef 187, was used as the soundtrack to the Hollywood blockbuster movie, Wakanda Forever, the Black Panther sequel, out in cinemas nationwide this month.
While remaining one of the world’s most daring artists to continually challenge and connect visions of self, African womanhood and the African diaspora to a greater conversation in an eagerly listening global community, at its simplest, As Above, So Below is an engrossing, cathartic and joyous record to cherish today, and for years to come.
Commenting on the forthcoming show, Stanbic Bank Head Brand & Marketing, Eric Ngondo, hailed the landmark concert, saying the Bank was proud to support and promote home-grown artists.
“Stanbic Bank is proud to partner with Sampa in promoting her music to a wider audience. As a financial services institution, it is our duty to support Zambian artists to provide them with a platform to enable them inspire millions of young people to be the very best version of themselves! And we believe Sampa, at such a young age, already embodies the spirit of national unity – courage and artistic brilliance we are excited about,” Mr. Ngondo says.
“Her professional achievements as a recording artist have already inspired us, as a nation, and we hope that Zambian music fans will turn out in their numbers to come and watch Sampa perform in what we know will be a successful concert.”
And Sampa explains the concept of her latest studio album, As Above, So Below, as more personal than communal.
“As Above, So Below is more personal than communal. The literal meaning is what is within me, is what is expressed outside of me. After years of feeling like I had to represent and be an ambassador for everyone, I finally feel like I get to be an ambassador and fully represent myself. Relocating to Zambia and Botswana is significant to my story, because this is where my artist dreams began. I was able to reconnect to my younger self and remind me why I started making music in the first place, beyond outside pressure or influence. This album has become a full circle moment for me; I was able to create this project in the country of my birth and have it be the first project created in Zambia with a Zambian Executive Producer, African visual team and majority African producers and artists. This is my freest project to–date and it feels like the journey of my return has been completed and a new chapter begins,” says Sampa.
Stanbic, in collaboration with cooperating partners, who include Action Auto, the distributors of the Isuzu vehicles, is sponsoring the Sampa the Great concert.
The bank will continue to be driven by its belief that the financial services sector must play a leadership role in addressing the social, economic and environmental challenges facing the world today, and the music industry remains an important sector to invest in.
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