Ricardo Lemvo & Makina Loca Samba Luku Samba

My love for world music (especially African) is a result of my dad's passion for Afro-Latin music. His hobby, tho not effective currently, was collecting records, which we store a mass selection in our house.

It's almost tradition for my dad on Sundays to sit in the living room, with a glass of chilled beer, listening to his vast collection and reminiscing about being back home in Africa.

So, I thought I'd ask him who his favourite artist of all time is.

I would have guessed Sam Mangwana, purely because he listens to him alot.

Instead, his all time musician is Ricardo Lemvo. Reasons being because he identifies with him culturally. Like Lemvo, my dad is of Angolan heritage, however fled from the war in Angola to Congo as a child with his family and lived there for a couple of years. He then later returned to Luanda where he met my mummy, worked a couple of years in Cuba, and then finally moved here to the UK. In total, my dad speaks six languages (Lingala, Kikongo, Portuguese, French, English and Spanish) the same as Lemvo, and 

all though he experienced some cultural identity struggles, he has however learnt to embrace it all, as it has made him the man he is today. 

Ricardo Lemvo

Ricardo Lemvo was and still is a pioneer with his creative music style. Lemvo's blend of Afro-Cuban rhythms with pan-African styles (soukous, Angolan semba and kizomba) infectious without a doubt
The Congo-born musician who is of Angolan ancestry is the embodiment of the Afro-Latin Diaspora which connects back to Mother Africa via the Cuban clave rhythm. Lemvo shows his multi-cultural diversity singing in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Lingala, and Kikongo.