Mohombi

Early life

Mohombi was born to a Swedish mother and a Congolese father. He has 14 siblings.^[3] Mohombi and his family left the war-torn Congo and emigrated to Stockholm, Sweden, in 1999 when Mohombi was 13. When he turned 20 years old, Mohombi rented a room in Radio 1 UAE's Simon B's childhood house just to get to know him better. His parents regularly exposed him to varied musical influences from early on in his childhood^[4] Mohombi studied at Rytmus Music High School in Stockholm and first appeared on stage in 2002 in the Swedish revival of Wild Side Story, an adaptation of West Side Story. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in music from the Royal College of Music, Stockholm. He speaks Swahili, Swedish, French, English, Spanish and Lingala.^[5]

In duo Avalon

In Stockholm Mohombi and his brother Djo Moupondo, a local club DJ known as DJ Djo formed the group Avalon^[6] combining the dancehall and hip hop of the time with the distinctive African beats on which they were raised. From 2004 to 2008 the group sold over half a million records and won the All African Kora Awards, an African equivalent of the Grammy for the category Best Group – Diaspora Europe/Caribbean category,while Mohombi became a prolific songwriter in his own right. At this point music was only a part-time job, and looking for something more Mohombi headed to Los Angeles. In 2005, the Avalon group participated in the Melodifestivalen, the Avalon group goes to the Eurovision Song Contest In 2005 in Linköping in Sweden with the English and French bilingual song with a Lingala language intro called "Big Up", in 2005 the Avalon Group participates in the Show sthlm, an annual music festival organized at Lava Kulturhuset.

On June 2, 2007, they participated in Hoodsfredsfestivalen in Kista.AAvalon group Group launched the album studio Afro-Viking mainly on the African market on 21 December 2007. Avalon Group has collaborated with artists / songwriters such as Bob Sinclar, Million Stylez, Mohaamed Lamine, Silver Room, Alexander Papadimas and many others.^[7]

2010–11: Movemeant

Mohombi collaborated with Swedish rapper Lazee on "Do It", which was released in Sweden on 31 May 2010. It debuted at number nine on the Swedish Singles Chart. In Los Angeles Mohombi was introduced through friends to producer RedOne, whose own background is Swedish-Moroccan. The singer's debut single, "Bumpy Ride" is the first release on RedOne's label 2101 Records, a joint venture with Universal. It was released in the United States on 24 August 2010.^[7][8][9] Mohombi released "Miss Me" as his debut single in the United Kingdom on 31 October 2010.^[10] It features American rapper Nelly. His third single called "Dirty Situation" was released in Europe on 11 November and features R&B singer Akon. "Dirty Situation" is played at the beginning and then again later on in the middle of the music video for "Miss Me". Mohombi's debut album, MoveMeant was released in Europe Monday 28 February 2011 and in the US by the end of 2011. Mohombi features on track "Hula hoop" of the 2011 release of Stella Mwangi album "Kinanda". Mohombi's single, "Coconut Tree" features Nicole Scherzinger. In 2011, he made his first annual appearance at the MAD Video Music Awards, in Athens, Greece, he was in duet with Katerína Stikoúdi, singing "Coconut Tree (Coconut Tree" Make Me Stay ").^[11]

MoveMeant–2014

On 2 September 2011 Mohombi released another single called "Maraca" on iTunes in Sweden.^[12] Mohombi also recorded the song "Suave (Kiss Me)" with Nayer & Pitbull. He was nominated for Best Swedish Act at the 2011 European Music Awards in Belfast.^[13] This Must Be Pop listed him 7th in their Top 10 of 2012.^[14] On 16 December 2011, he appeared as musical guest on The Voice of Romania.^[15]

Universe-Presente

In 2014, Mohombi decided to abandon Universal Music and firm with its own music, La Clique Music, and read the album Universe, on which it was published. Mohombi was invited in July 2015 to represent his country's youth at a summit organized by the United Nations in New York. He was also a jury member of the 2015 Best of the Best All Star season, the biggest talent show in the DRC. In 2015 Mohombi participates with Pitbull on Baddest Girl in Town with wisin. In 2016 Mohombi participates with Joey Montana on Picky Picky(remix) with akon. In 2016 Mohombi is the Winner of a Grammy Award for his participation on album "DALE", Of Pitbull. In the category: Best album of the year.