Singeli or sometimes called Sengeli is a

Tanzanian Demographic features of the population of Tanzania include population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations, and other aspects of the population. The population distribution in Tan ...

music genre that originated with the

Zaramo The Zaramo people, also referred to as Dzalamo or Saramo (''Wazaramo'', in Swahili language, Swahili), are a Bantu peoples, Bantu ethnic group native to the central eastern coast of Tanzania, particularly the Dar es Salaam Region and Pwani Regio ...

in the Mtogole neighborhood of the Tandale ward in

Kinondoni District Kinondoni District, officially the Kinondoni Municipal Council (''Halimashauri ya Manispaa ya Kinondoni'', in Swahili language, Swahili) is one of five Districts of Tanzania, districts of the Dar es Salaam Region of Tanzania. The district is bord ...

Dar es Salaam Region Dar es Salaam Region () is one of Tanzania's 31 administrative regions and is located on the east coast of the country. The region covers an area of . The region is comparable in size to the combined land and water areas of the nation state of Ma ...

around the mid-2000s. The genre has since the late 2010s spread throughout Tanzania, and since 2020 the surrounding

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes spanning the Canada–United States border. The five lakes are Lake Superior, Superior, Lake Michigan, Michigan, Lake Huron, H ...

. This is purely Tanzanian music. It is not Soukous (Congolese music) or Taarab (Arabic music). Singeli is a ngoma music and dance where an MC performs over fast tempo

taarab Taarab is a music genre popular in both Tanzania and Kenya. It has been influenced by the musical traditions of the African Great Lakes, North Africa, the Middle East, and the Indian subcontinent. Taarab rose to prominence in 1928 with the adv ...

music, often at between 200 and 300 beats per minute (BPM), while women dance. Male and female MCs are near equally common, however styles between MC gender typically differ significantly. Male MCs usually perform in fast-paced rap, while female MCs usually perform kwaya. In the early 2000s ''vigodoro'', meaning all night parties, began being organized by

women for their other female family and friends particularly Manzese and Tandale wards. However the latter is considered the birthplace of the genre. The parties involved playing cassette tapes of taarab music that other women would come and dance to. As ''vigodoro'' parties grew MCs would be invited to come and perform over the cassettes. Msaga Sumu was one such MC and is considered one of the early founders of Singeli.

References

2000s in music 21st-century music genres African electronic dance music Tanzanian styles of music {{music-genre-stub