Mahmoud Ahmed

Mahmoud Ahmed

Mahmoud Ahmed is a musician and sound engineer/producer associated with Ethiopian music and jazz. He is from the United States and is also identified as an Ethiopian singer of Gurage ancestry. He is known by his name in Amharic, ማሕሙድ ኣሕመድ.

Early career

He is born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and begins working there before his singing career develops. He shines shoes in the city, then works as a handyman at the Arizona Club, where he first sings professionally in the early 1960s.

Recording and bands

Mahmoud Ahmed sings with the Imperial Body Guard Band until 1974. During the 1970s he also records with other bands for the Amha and Kaifa record labels. Over the course of his career he performs with the Ibex Band, the Venus Band, the Walias Band, the Idan Raichel Project, and the Roha Band.

Later career

In the 1980s he opens his own music store in Addis Ababa's Piazza district while continuing his singing career. From the late 1990s he gains renewed popularity in Europe and the Americas after the Ethiopiques series appears on compact disc, which leads to new recordings and tours in Europe and the United States with Boston's Either/Orchestra.