Kinshasa, October 5th, 2025 (CPA). – The singer Louis Albert Longomba, known as Awilo Longomba, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, has been invited to the Afro Nation festival devoted to the promotion of the profession of disc jockey, from July 3rd to 5th, 2026 in Portimao in Portugal, according to the organisers’ website consulted on Sunday by CPA.
« In 2026, Afro Nation returns to Portimao for its 6th edition with the ambition of creating an innovative space that will showcase the disk jockeys (DJs) and collectives who are shaping the future of Afro-club music. Everything points to an even more spectacular programme. The first wave of artists has already been announced: Asake, Tyla, Wizkid, Mariah the Scientist, Olamide, Niska, Awilo Longomba (…) », it is read. According to the same source, Afro Nation, which attracts audiences from Europe, Africa, the United States and the Caribbean every summer, confirms its place as a global meeting place for Afro-Cuban culture. Initiated in 2019, the Afro Nation festival aims to bring together the diaspora and fans of Afrobeats, amapiano, hip-hop, R&B and dance hall around the greatest artists.
Awilo Longomba, precursor of the techno-soukous style
At 63, Louis Awilo Longomba is renowned as a leader of Congolese music, thanks to his music and his artist’s look. A former drummer with the group Viva-la-Musica, he has made a name for himself on the African continent with a style of music often far removed from the Congolese Rumba sung by his father Vicky Longomba. His father was one of the finest vocalists in DRC and a tenor in the Tout-Puissant OK Jazz orchestra in Kinshasa.
As for his son, Awilo has begun his career as a drummer in Kinshasa bands before joining Viva-la-Musica, which he left in 1993 with his band-mates to form the ‘Nouvelle Generation’ orchestra. Wanting to stand on his own two feet, he has become a singer, representing another version of Congolese music, what he calls ‘techno-soukouss’. The success he is enjoying everywhere he goes proves that he has not chosen the wrong vocation. Like his father, Awilo travels the world as a true showman of Congolese song. Now based in London, he is regarded as an irrepressible stage performer, and is recognised worldwide as one of the dynamic ambassadors of African music. CPA/