Worn down by the Australian music industry, Sampa Tembo returned to Zambia to make a new album in two weeks, blending hip-hop and Zamrock. She spoke to Guardian Australia exclusively from Glastonbury
ast Saturday, taking the stage at Glastonbury, Sampa the Great made history. A vision in bright red, the Zambian rapper and songwriter, born Sampa Tembo, addressed the crowd with a sly grin on her face: “I’m standing on this stage with the first Zambian band to perform at Coachella,” she said. “The first Zambian band to perform at the Sydney Opera House … and the first Zambian band to perform at Glastonbury!”was never her intention – but it comes with the territory.
“I’m always Sampa Tembo, Sampa the Great, we’re the same person. That [name] was an inspiration to be the greatest version of myself – it was not meant to be an alter ego, or a persona.” “As my story started to grow in Australia, and I was being called ‘Australian’, I felt that I really had to defend Zambia, and Zambian music and culture – the fact I was raised in Botswana and heard this music as I was being raised fell to the wayside.”
Never Forget, the album’s latest single, pays tribute to the Zamrock musicians who paved the way for artists like her. “I just felt it was really courageous, as Zambian artists, to take on psychedelic rock in a country where what you’re doing is not considered a profession or career, and now it’s built this huge movement that’s known globally.”Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian
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