Many many thanks to Andreas Wetter for translating the liner notes of 4 ዝናኞች ሲያዳምጡ በልብዎ ላይ ሰላምና ፍቅር ያገኛሉ - When You Listen to the 4 Famous Singers You Will Find Peace and Love in Your Heart, a really nice cassette issued by Ambassel Music Shop in Ethiopia in 1992.
With the exception of Martha Ashagari, who was featured in a previous post, I've been unable to find out much about these artists, although judging by the number of Youtube videos available online, they're very popular indeed!
የሩቅ ሰው ትዝታ - "Nostalgia for a far person":
Martha Ashagari - Yä-Ruq Säw Təzəta
ነካካኝ - "He Touched Me Somehow" (i.e. We were together and then he left me):
Martha Ashagari - Näkakkaññ
ዳርልን (ባሌ) - "Let Your Child Marry Our Child" - (literally: give your child in marriage for someone of our family, presumably a boy because usually the family of the boy takes the initiative and asks for the girl's hand):
Martha Ashagari & Teshome Asged - Darəllənn (Bale)
እማዋዬው የለኝ - "I Have No One to Share My Thoughts":
Teshome Asged - Emmawayyew Yälläññ
አትለይኝ - "Don't Leave Me":
Teshome Asged - Attəläyyəññ
ሸጋው ተወልዷል - "A Handsome Has Been Born":
Elias Tababbal - Shäggaw Täwäldwall
ከከዳህው በል ተወው - "If He Betrayed You Leave Him Alone":
Bezawork Asfaw - Kä-Käddahəw Bäl Täwəw
ልብህን ታዘብኩት - "I Found Out What Kind of Man You Are":
Bezawork Asfaw - Ləbbəhən Tazzäbkut
ወሬዋን አምጡልኝ - "Bring Me News About Her":
Elias Tababbal - Wärewan Amṭulləññ
የኔ አለም - "My World":
Elias Tababbal - Y'ne Aläm
ትክክለኛ ኦርጅናሉን ብቻ ያዳምጡ (Listen only to a real original recording)
ዜማ (Music, melody): ዘላለም መኩሪያ (Zelealem Mekuriya), ማርታ አሻጋሪ (Martha Ashagari), ኤልያስ ተባበል (Elias Tababbal), ያየህይራድ አላምረው (Yayerad Alamrew)
ግጥም (Lyrics): ይልማ ገ/አብ (Yilma Gebre-Ab), ያየህይራድ አላምረው (Yayerad Alamrew), ዘላለም መኩሪያ (Zelealem Merkuria), ማርታ አሻጋሪ (Martha Ashagari), ኤልያስ ተባበል (Elias Tababbal)
አሳታሚና አከፋፋይ (Produceer and Distributor): አምባሰል ሙዚቃና ቪዲዮ መደብር (Ambassel Music and Video Shop)
Download Four Famous Singers as a zipped file here.
Note: I have included the Ge'ez font provided by Andreas for the benefit of anyone using an Ethiopic-language search engine. However, depending on your browser and its settings, this may be visible to you as gibberish, or may cause your computer/smart phone to run slowly or even crash. If you have the latter problem, please let me know in the comments and I will rectify the situation immediately!
