Hotly-Tipped Angolan-Portuguese Artist Pongo Releases Her New EP "Uwa"
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Angolan-Portuguese artist Pongo has released her new EP, ‘Uwa’ (available now via Caroline International). The follow-up to her 6Music-supported debut EP ‘Baia’ - which has since been streamed over 6 million times - ‘Uwa’ arrives ahead of an appearance from Pongo (alongside Girlband and Ghum) as part of this year’s 6Music Festival, at Dingwalls on March 5th. Pongo will be back in the UK again in April, for a string of headline shows, including London’s EartH Hackney on April 18th. The ‘Uwa’ EP features singles ‘Quem Manda No Mic’ - supported by 1Xtra and playlisted at 6Music - and recent release ‘Canto’, shot in Pongo’s adopted hometown of Lisbon.
Originally hailing from Angola’s capital city of Luanda, as a kid Pongo was forced to flee to Europe with her family to escape its lengthy and harrowing civil war. Eventually settling in a city north of Lisbon with a very small African-immigrant population, a young Pongo experienced racist abuse whilst completing her schooling in the area. Already seeking solace from a disturbing present tense by retreating into the music, dance & slang of her former life, Pongo’s route to becoming one of Kuduro’s fast-rising young stars was completed by the closest of near misses. Falling several storeys out of a window as the result of a prank gone horribly wrong - escaping with only a broken ankle - Pongo was forced to catch a train each week for physiotherapist treatment. Stopping at the city’s Quelez Station, Pongo encountered the Denon Squad, a group of boys practising kuduro dance on the streets of one of Lisbon’s largest African communities. Soon rapping over their routines, a tape of Pongo’s recordings made its way into the hands of Lisbon-based kuduro collective, Buraka Som Sistema. Pongo (her artist name a tribute to feminist Congolese singer, M’Pongo Love) then went on to make her debut - aged just 15 - on their ‘Black Diamond’ album, alongside M.I.A. and Kano.
‘Uwa’ itself takes its name from a word in Angola’s Kimbundo language meaning ‘step’ - on its title track Pongo interpolates the calls of children playing dodgeball on the streets of Luanda to irresistible effect. Lead-off single ‘Quem Manda No Mic’ seldom lets up across its pacey 3 minute span, teeming with Pongo’s no-nonsense sass and centred around a chorus as infectiously insistent as ‘Who rules the mic? Pongo!’. Elsewhere, the languorous ‘Canto’ re-roots Latin rhythms with results that feel both futuristic and without borders. Whilst Pongo has always blended lyrics in both Kimbundo and Portuguese, across ‘Uwa’ she bring english into the mix for the first time, to particularly startling effect on the fluttering ‘Wafu’, a state-of-the-nation counsel to her fellow Africans for unity, tolerance and peace.
With Pongo now choosing to live in Lisbon’s Quelez neighbourhood, and still sporting the large scar across her calf which remains from her death-defying accident, you sense it’s more than just coincidental that the kuduro movement took its name from an Angolan slang word meaning ‘hard-ass’.
Listen to “Uwa” right now, stream the EP on your preferred music service and connect with Pongo on her social media.