Mulugeta Abate was an Ethiopian

songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...

arranger In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orches ...

, and

lyricist A lyricist is a songwriter who writes lyrics (the spoken words), as opposed to a composer, who writes the song's music which may include but not limited to the melody, harmony, arrangement and accompaniment. Royalties A lyricist's income ...

popular for his prolific work on about 400 different albums and more than 4000 songs in various languages of Ethiopia. His latest works include the

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by '' Man Alemosoh'', which featured a popular song, "Wello". He was also credited for albums by dozens of singers in the

Oromo language Oromo ( or ; Oromo: ''Afaan Oromoo''), in the linguistic literature of the early 20th century also called Galla (a name with a pejorative meaning and therefore rejected by the Oromo people), is an Afroasiatic language that belongs to the Cushiti ...

including the pop star '' Saiha Sami'', and Desaligne Mersah in the

Gurage language The Gurage languages (Gurage: ጉራጌ), also known as Guragie, is a dialect-continuum language, which belong to the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken by the Gurage people, who inhabit the Gurage Zone within t ...

. He also arranged the popular Amharic song "ሕልሜን የት ልክሰሰው" sung by Gosaye Tesfye. Mulugeta Abate was born in Kombolcha, Wollo, Ethiopia. He was also known by another name, Roobaa Dhaabaa (Oromo name). In his latest interview with Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation/EBC3, Mulugeta explained that the name Roobaa Dhaabaa was given to him by Oromos as a reward for his wonderful contribution in the development of Oromo song industry. In Ethiopia, the vocalist receives most of the credit for the songs he or she performs, while the

and melodist are often not credited, or barely mentioned, and are generally unrecognized by the public. Thus, most Ethiopians do not know the authors of songs, as in the case of Mulugeta Abate. He died in November 2016.

External links

Appearance by Mulugeta Abate as Guest Host on Radio Fana
Ethiopian songwriters Ethiopian composers Ethiopian music arrangers 2016 deaths {{Ethiopia-musician-stub