Kanda Bongo Man

Kanda Bongo Man (born 1955), from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is a prominent soukous musician. He is most famous for the structural changes he implemented to soukous music. The previous approach was to sing several verses and have one guitar solo at the end of the song. Kanda Bongo Man revolutionized soukous by encouraging guitar solos after every verse and even sometimes at the beginning of the song. His form of soukous gave birth to the kwassa kwassa dance rhythm where the hips move back and forth while the hands move to follow the hips.

Kanda Bongo Man still tours frequently in Europe and the United States. On July, 2005 he performed at the LIVE 8: Africa Calling concert in Cornwall.