Worn down by the Australian music industry, Sampa Tembo returned to Zambia to make a new album in two weeks, blending hip-hop and Zamrock. She spoke to Guardian Australia exclusively from Glastonbury
Last Saturday, taking the stage at Glastonbury, Sampa the Great made history. A vision in bright red, the Zambian rapper and songwriter, born Sampa Tembo, addressed the crowd with a sly grin on her face: “I’m standing on this stage with the first Zambian band to perform at Coachella,” she said. “The first Zambian band to perform at the Sydney Opera House … and the first Zambian band to perform at Glastonbury!”
Being the first was never her intention – but it comes with the territory. “When we first went to Coachella, our thought process wasn’t ‘we want to be the first Zambian band’,” she says. She’s speaking to me moments after her set, still swathed in red latex and a plush red puffer jacket, lucent gold eyeshadow visible behind her sunglasses. “Zambian bands don’t always tour internationally, they don’t always get success. We want to be able to live out our dreams and what came with it was being the first Zambian band to do it. It feels good to show younger Zambians that you can do this too.”