Faytinga

BIO

Faytinga (born Dahab Faid Tinga) is a prominent African singer and musician from Eritrea. She comes from the Kunama people, one of Eritrea’s many tribes, where women and men have equal rights. Born in 1962, she joined the liberation struggle at the age of fourteen, where she was given education and later become a combatant until the liberation in 1991. Her mother was from the Tigrinya people, while her father was a revered freedom fighter among the Kunama people.

Faytinga composes her own songs and also interprets work from well-known poets and composers from Eritrea. When singing, she plays the krar, a small lyre. The CD album "Numey" is Faytinga's first international release on the Paris-based Cobalt label. All of the songs on this album of hers are in her native Kunama language. In 2003, she released her second album "Eritrea". Besides the krar and wata, she also brought guitar, flute, and percussion sounds.

Faytinga has been performing around the world representing Eritrea as a 'cultural ambassador' for her country. She participated in particular to Expo 2005 in Aichi, Japan and to Expo 2010 in Shanghai, China. She also attended the Earth Summit 2002 held in Johannesburg, South Africa. More recently, in January 2016, she participated to the live recording of France Musique emission "Couleurs du Monde" "Mama Africa, and from 7 to 9 July 2016 she participated to the Førde Traditional and World Music Festival in Norway.