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Senait Ghebrehiwet Mehari is an Ethiopian-born German singer. She goes professionally by her single name "Senait". She is also known as Senait Mehari, although this is a common understanding and is due to the Europeanization of an Eritrean naming convention.
Biography
She was born in Asmera in the Province of Eritrea in Ethiopia on 3 December 1974 (exact year is unknown, it may be some years earlier or later) to an Eritrean father and Ethiopian mother. When she was six years old, her father sent her and her two elder half-sisters to the Eritrean Liberation Front as "Students of the Revolution". Three years later her uncle took the three girls to Sudan, where they lived with him for three years. When Senait was twelve years old, her father, who emigrated to Hamburg, Germany, sent for them writing songs around this time. She also wrote a sequel, Wüstenlied („Desert Song”), about her visit to Eritrea. It was published in May 2006.
She released her first album, Mein Weg („My Way”) on November 11, 2005. The first single Hey Du („Hey, You”) is a romantic song. The theme of the album is autobiographical –the song Wenn die Nacht („When the Night”)- is about her dead grandmother; Kap Gheza is about a child who feels unloved, and Libbey is a love story.
Her autobiography Feuerherz ("Heart of Fire") was published in 2004. In February 2007, the 'Zapp' TV show on Germany's NDR channel accused Senait of fabricating some of its contents, notably that she served as a child soldier in Eritrea. She denies the allegations. The book has been translated into several languages. A homonyme film adaptation has been released in 2009.
Music career
She worked as a songwriter and background singer before launching her own career. Inside Germany her singles Leben/Aura became big hits in Germany in 2001. Aura was re-released early 2005 in new versions before of the release of her album. A nice tune, called Hiwet is available from her website feuerherz. Her song Herz aus Eis ("Heart of Ice") placed fourth in the German preselection for the Eurovision Song Contest of 2003.
Personal life
Senait is now living in Berlin.
References
- Tembo, Nick M. (2017). "Unhomeliness, unending phobias and liminality in Senait Mehari's Heart of Fire". Literator: Journal of Literary Criticism, Comparative Linguistics and Literary Studies. 38 (1). doi:10.4102/lit.v38i1.1298. hdl:10019.1/104127.
- Odhiambo, Tom (2009). "Lost African Childhoods: Two Narratives of War and Slavery from Africa in Mende Nazer's "Slave" and Senait Mehari's "Heart of Fire"". Jenda (15).
- Berndt, Katrin (2009). "Shared Paradoxes in Namibian and German History". In Helff, Sissy; Merolla, Daniela (eds.). Transcultural Modernities: Narrating Africa in Europe. Rodopi. p. 350. ISBN 9789042025387.
- http://www3.ndr.de/ndrtv_pages_std/0,3147,OID3691026_REF2488,00.html
- "Autorin Senait Mehari: Klage gegen NDR geplant" [Author Senait Mehari: action against NDR planned]. Der Spiegel (in German). 20 February 2007.
- http://www.feuerherz.com/feuerherz/index2.htm
External links