The Congolese entertainment industry is ending the year in a gloomy mood following the death of one of its veteran singers Tshala Muana.

Tshala Muana, real name Élisabeth Tshala Muana Muidikay breathed her last in the wee hours of today morning, based on her husband Claude Mashala’s social media post.

”In the wee hours of this morning
The good Lord has decided to take over the national mamu
Plant a child
May the good n God be glorified for all the good times she has put us on this earth..
Goodbye my Mamu”

Although he did not specify the cause of Muana’s passing, sources from the country indicate that she had a stroke and had been receiving treatment in Kinshasa.

Following the release of her song Karibou Yangu 1980s, which featured a provocative Mutuashi dance that supported a woman’s right to bodily autonomy, Muana became a continental phenomenon.

About Tsala Muana

Tshala Muana was born on 13 May 1958, in Lubumbashi, then part of the Belgian Congo, now the Democratic Republic of Congo. She was the second of ten children of Amadeus Muidikayi, a soldier, and Alphonsine Bambiwa Tumba, a housewife.

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In 1964, when Muana Muidikay was 6 years old, her father was murdered in Watsha by the Ulelist maquis during the Congo crisis. She was raised by her mother, who died in 2005.

Never married, her companion was her producer and companion, Claude Mashala. In June 2020 she was rumored to have died but was instead hospitalized after having suffered a stroke.

In November 2020, Muana was arrested by the National Intelligence Agency (ANR), reportedly for her song “Ingratitude”, which was widely circulated over social media. On December 10, 2022, Muana died in Kinshasa at the age of 64.