D'banj!

Thank you Mr. Embassy-man for introducing me to the House Member who invited me to the meeting so I could meet D'banj!

Yup, that's right, I got to meet D'banj.  Got to talk to him.  He even shook my hand!!  And... look!

D'banj has several albums released now, but I only have the one that's available on Amazon.com.  I'm still trying to find out where to buy non-pirated cds here.  According to the newspapers, D'banj contracted with the fast food chain Mr. Biggs to sell legitimate copies of his albums, but I haven't been to a Mr. Biggs yet.

He's really nice, and a bit shorter than he looks on tv.  (Everyone's always shorter than I expect.)  His breakthrough hit was Tongolo.  Although, personally, I prefer the remix.  It's good music!  If you like American hip hop, check it out.  In fact, check it out even if you don't like American hip hop. ;) 

That's the second celebrity I've met.  The first was Angela Nyirenda.  She's my absolute favorite Zambian singer, probably because she does some songs in Tonga and no one else does.  I had a picture with her, but it was either on a cd in the box that never arrived, or on the cd that got destroyed on the flight home.  She was also really nice.  That was one thing I really loved about Zambia.  The celebrities are so approachable.  The country's population is fairly small, and the cities where the artists tour are often small.  The most incredible Zambian concert line-up imaginable still had such a small crowd (by American standards) that we were able to sit close to stage.  Some audience members even could go dance on the stage.

So yeah, I'm super excited, and will probably be jumping around for a couple weeks! :)