Nyota Ndogo whose real name is Mawanaisha Abdalla, was born in 1981, is a Kenyan who sings pop music influenced by taarab.
She comes from the coastal town of Mombasa. She is the second child in a family of six children. She joined Makande Primary School. Unfortunately, she never took her KCPE exam because her family could not raise the money needed for the exam registration.
Family
Although she has two siblings, only they have succeeded in studying up to the form four level. Her younger sister drop out of school in class five, while the other one completed her primary school education but did not join secondary school. Nyota Ndogo took good care of her younger siblings when her mother was not around to take care of the family.
Career history and music career
After running out of money to register for the KCPE exam, she decided to drop out of school and go to work as a domestic worker. Abdala Atib’s father was a musician with a local band, but Nyota Ndogo did not get involved in music until he was inspired by the lyrics of the K-South hip hop group. It was then that he was discovered to have a unique talent by Andrew Burchell, a Mombasa producer.
Husband, marriage and children
The singer is currently married to a Danish man by the name, Henning Nielsen. Henning and Nyota Nogodo’s wedding took place on May 22, 2016. However, there is no information about how, when and where they first met. At the time of their wedding, the singer had been separated from her ex-husband for eight years, while Henning had been separated from her ex-wife for 24 years. Although the two have no children together, they have grown children from their previous unions.
Nyota Ndogo’s marriage has once under fire after an April fool’s joke from Nyota Ndogo to her husband’s strike. The singer shared her sadness on social media claiming that she had not spoken to him for a long time.
Nyota Ndogo has released four albums: Chereko, Nimetoka Mbali Mpenzi and “Mama Wakambo”, she won the Kisima Award for the best Taarab singer in 2003 and the best female singer in 2005. She has been nominated three times for the upcoming Kisima Awards in 2008. She was nominated becoming the best Kenyan female artist at the 2007 PAM Awards. Her song Watu Na Viatu was nominated as the best East African song at the 2007 Tanzania Music Awards.
Her song “Take Care” is featured on the international compilation album World 2003, while “Chereko” is on the Rough Guides to Kenyan Music compilation, the same song was also featured on the Rough Guides – Off the Beaten Track compilation.
She has collaborated with Nonini on the song Nibebe and Necessary Noize on their song “Nataka Toa”. He also did a collaboration with Ally B which became a hit in East Africa.
Nyota Ndogo also did a collaboration with a famous Tanzanian artist known as Q Chilla which succeeded in making her having another collaboration with Mr Blue who is also a famous artist in Tanzania.
As a result of that collaboration, she was among those nominated to perform at the Kilimanjaro awards. In 2013, she also did another collaboration with Tember from Tanzania and Bobby Mapesa from Kenya, a song called Nawahamalika.
Nyota has represented Kenya in various concerts in East Africa, including Sauti za tasara and Ziff of Zanzibar. She also represented Kenya in Comoros. The star has also performed in Dubai, Germany, and South Africa.
The songbird from Mombasa was hired and worked as a radio presenter at a popular radio station known as Baraka Fm based in Mombasa, Kenya. In 2013 she was one of the judges in the biggest television program in East Africa called Tusker Project Fame. In the same year she won the Best Coastal Female Artist of the Year 2013
As per now nyota Ndogo has released the following songs : Mahari, Dawa, Bundu. Barua Thiyo, Suhuba Ya Dai, Linda Moyo (feat. Nyota Ndogo) H_Art The Band, Mtama Wangu. Nyota Ndogo and Koronge
Nyota Ndogo has proven that humble beginnings can lead to better lives in the future. With hard work, dedication and consistency, he has become the best in the music industry.
