SaRaha, who’s real name is Sara, is competing in the Swedish Qualifiers for Eurovision – the biggest TV show in Sweden. She debuted her new single ”Kizunguzungu” on the show in February and charmed the Swedish audience who voted her on to the semi finals. When released her song went straight to top 40 on Spotify and peaked at #2 just a few days later. This week the single has reached the Gold certification and most of the biggest Swedish radio stations have added the track to their playlists. On Saturday SaRaha will be competing in the finals of the Swedish qualifiers for Eurovision and it will be decided if she’ll represent Sweden in Eurovision Song Contest 2016.
SaRaha originates from both Sweden and Tanzania, she has for the past five years become a known artist with her Afropop sound on the Tanzanian music scene. SaRaha was born 1983 in Vänersborg, Sweden but moved to Tanzania with her family when at the age of two. She spent a big part of her childhood there and when she turned 18 SaRaha moved to Zimbabwe and started to perform in various clubs and restaurants together with her band, consisting of Zimbabwean musicians.
In 2009 SaRaha revisited Tanzania and discovered the East African pop music scene, which has ever since remained her musical focus. Her artist name SaRaha is a mix between her name and Raha, which means joy in Swahili. Her big breakthrough in Tanzania came in 2011 when she released her first song ”Tanesco”. Since then she has released various singles and done many big performances such as the Kilimanjaro Music Awards and Miss Tanzania. SaRaha’s music began getting airtime on Swedish radio stations during 2014 and her song “Mbele Kiza” entered the Swedish pop chart ”Svensktoppen”. This year she’s competing in the Swedish Qualifiers for Eurovision – the biggest TV show in Sweden. One of the co-writers of ”Kizunguzungu” is the Swedish pop star Arash who represented Azerbajdzjan in Eurovision Song Contest 2009 where he ended up in third place with the song ”Always”. The single is also co-written and produced by Anderz Wrethov who has a hit list record with artists such as; Arash, Samir & Viktor, Basshunter and Medina.
Fans of Eurovision Song Contest cover songs
