Meklit, born Meklit Hadero, is an Ethiopian-American vocalist, songwriter and composer based in San Francisco. She is known for a style that combines jazz, folk and East African influences, and for performing in English and Amharic. She is also described as a former refugee and as someone with a strong cultural activism practice.

Background

Meklit is born in Ethiopia and is raised in the United States after fleeing to the US with her doctor parents following the violence after Ethiopia’s 1974 revolution. She is raised in Iowa and Brooklyn before later settling in San Francisco.

She attends Yale University, where she studies political science and earns a degree in the subject. While at Yale, she continues to sing, having grown up singing in choirs and having been introduced to Billie Holiday as an adolescent.

Career

In San Francisco, Meklit takes vocal and guitar lessons and becomes part of the city’s arts scene. She finds a base at the Red Poppy Art House, where she begins to perform and develops her own sound.

She also works with guitarist Todd Brown in the band Nefasha Ayer, which is influenced by jazz, roots and African music. As a solo artist, she releases her debut album, On A Day LikeThis..., in 2010.