"Get into Meklit." - VIBE MAGAZINE
"With her latest masterpiece, Meklit has affirmed her place among her childhood heroes: at the shining crossroads of two cultures, making truly moving music." - POPMATTERS
“There is a raw beauty about Ethiopian vocalist and songwriter Meklit. Her voracious musical appetite is always evident, and she manages to honor her heritage while remaining fiercely original.” - JAZZ TIMES
"To understand Meklit’s story, you must first place yourself in front of a map and open up your ears. It’s only then that her music can hit you with full force—and trust us, when it does, you’ll be happy you’re knocked off your feet." - DIG BOSTON
- "...a rare artist...The album comprises knotted, earnest ruminations on finding one’s self, finding one’s loves, and anthems for the very act of making music... creating something compelling and wholly her own" - AFROPOP
"Meklit is a performer of 21st-century Ethio-jazz, now hailing from San Francisco although being Ethiopian born... And what a beautiful spectacle it was: thriving, thumping, thunderous jazz, with a melodic, melismatic trill to her stunning voice. It was so unique and characteristic that there was no confusing Meklit’s jazz with others’. She was accompanied by a stunning saxophonist and davul (large double-headed drum) player, who together raised the roof with groovy rhythms, talented solos and also demanded silence from the crowd in the most intimate and precious moments. Meklit is a performer to treasure and remember." - RHYTHM PASSPORTS UK, MEKLIT AS WOMAD HIGHLIGHT
"This album is like the explosion of wildflowers that has overrun California with color and texture." - 48 HILLS
“You may not have heard Meklit's music before, but once you do, it’ll be tough to forget. Her sound is a unique blend of jazz, Ethiopia, the San Francisco art scene and visceral poetry; it paints pictures in your head as you listen.” - NPR
"Meklit delivers a sound all her own." - USA TODAY
"Her afro reaching towards the sun, her voice swimming its way across borders, Meklit blends sounds and sayings of her native Ethiopia with a style that evokes the nuanced windings of black American jazz and soul... We Are Alive [is] a stunning medley of songs that showcase Meklit’s growth since her 2010 debut, On A Day Like This." - MTV IGGY
“Soulful, tremulous and strangely cinematic, Hadero’s voice will implant scenes in your mind — a softly lit supperclub, a Brooklyn stoop, a sun-baked road. Close your eyes, listen and dream. - SEATTLE TIMES
"A blithe-voiced daughter of Joni who considers music a path to higher ground, with rest stops for the likes of Talking Heads and Lou Reed." – THE VILLAGE VOICE
"Meklit is a local treasure if there ever was one. The Ethiopian-born, Bay Area-dwelling songstress blends African and American blues, jazz and folk sounds with a constantly surprising level of grace and magnetism." -KQED SAN FRANCISCO
Meklit's Kemekem video is listed as a top African track/video on two BBC roundups + OkayAfrica + BeeHype + MAPP Africa
"Here comes a delightful music superstar with substance... I love the raw ambition of the “We Are Alive” album – the preposterousness, the simplicity and also the fundamental intelligence. If champagne were a person it would be Meklit." - ROOMS MAGAZINE UK
I've been listening to Meklit for days. This new album will INVOLVE you! – NPR's ANN POWERS
"Blown away by "We Are Alive," the new album by @meklitmusic, one of the greatest jazz singer-songwriters of our time." - MARIA POPOVA, BRAIN PICKINGS
“An artistic giant in the early stages... She is stunning.” - SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
“Meklit is one of those rare artists with the power to bridge genres, geography and generations.” -GOOGLE MUSIC
"Meklit's self described Ethio-Jazz will blow your mind and fill your soul." - LIVE WIRE RADIO airing on 125 stations around the US.
"While Meklit’s music contains elements of classic Ethio-jazz she also conveys a bold, soulful sound that exudes supreme confidence" - Review of Meklit's WOMAD UK Performance by MUSIC OMH
“With a nomadic upbringing and a yearning to speak her own truth, Meklit is an empowered songstress making big noise in the modern world of Ethio-jazz. Combining East Coast African jazz with her own brand of danceable soul, the end result is a dynamic mix of energy and courage in her music. Meklit is a well-educated woman, whose love for music shines out when she performs. There is no doubt this is her destiny. Most recently, she released an album, When The People Move The Music Moves Too, which is a deeply personal offering, bringing all her histories together.” - RHYTHM PASSPORTS UK.
“Meklit is no stranger to NYC, but the Ethiopian-born, San Francisco-based singer had plenty of new moves (and songs) to offer. She took some of the biggest artistic risks of the evening, with a set of open-hearted, viscerally poetic songs, sung mainly in English, but inflected with Ethiopian modal flavour. Backed by a swinging, percussion-and-bass trio, and briefly wielding a krar, Meklit illuminated her deeply personal immigrant song(s) brilliantly.” - SONGLINES MAGAZINE, globalFEST review
“We don’t have to reach for her music because it beckons to us. We don’t have to be trained in order to understand the highly-developed themes of her lyrics because Meklit’s music is a spiritual gravity for our hearts. She spins her songs and we drift unerringly toward a common center." - WALTER MOSLEY, Liner notes for We Are Alive
Meklit Hadero has a presence most singers only dream of. From the minute she takes the stage -- in a casual black jumpsuit, with bare feet and a radiant smile -- she exudes warmth, ease and authenticity. And then she opens her mouth…Whether a breathy high-range whisper, a playful trill or a deep-from-the-diaphragm rumble, her tone has a purity and her presentation an unaffectedness that makes you feel as if she's singing just for you.- Herald Tribune
"A visionary both on and off the bandstand..." - SAN FRANCISCO MAGAZINE
“…one of the jazz world's most innovative modern artists." - POPMATTERS
“When was the last time you had an hour of solid joy? On this album, Meklit—a singer whose Ethiopian roots blend with the sounds of her San Francisco hometown—has created a cornucopia of music that will resonate with jazz fiends, pop fans, and everyone in between. Each track is completely different than the last...but all of them speak to the individuality of its singer, and her divine ability to keep the listener at attention.” - BANDCAMP: Best Soul Albums of 2017
"Brilliant." - NEW YORK MAGAZINE
"...if you have any doubts that the musical styles of East Africa and the Bay Area can be melded with equal parts grit and grace, she'll knock them right out of you with vocals, horns and percussion — such exhilarating, heartbeat-propelling percussion — by the time the first chorus comes around." - NPR
"You Need to Hear Meklit’s Ethiopian Cover of The Roots’ Classic “You Got Me” - OKAY AFRICA
"When The People Move The Music Moves Too – gorgeous, gorgeous new record by the wildly talented @meklitmusic." - MARIA POPOVA, BRAINPICKINGS
"Last night at Lincoln Center, Meklit came to conquer. Rocking a sassy kente cloth skirt and black top, the ex-Brooklynite Ethio-jazz belter bounded and whirled across the stage, singing in both English and Amharic, leading a tight six-piece band through a passionate, fiery, subtly relevant mix of mostly new songs from her forthcoming album When the People Move, the Music Moves Too.... she’s found new vocal power in her low register, and commands the stage like never before. One of the best New York City concerts of 2017" - NEW YORK MUSIC DAILY
"A creative breakthrough born out of bandstand experimentation, the album weaves together Meklit’s Ethiopian roots with a propulsive menagerie of African-diaspora grooves. As the album’s title suggests, Meklit captures the way culture and beats evolve as people move across regions and continents. Her lyrics evoke the love and ache for worlds left behind, but tracks like the soaring opener “This Was Made Here” also speak to the ecstatic power of self-reinvention. Whether you call it Ethio-East Bay funk, Bay-Amharic boogie, or NoLa Addis-soul, When the People Move is a deeply satisfying project..." - Andrew Gilbert, KQED - Top 10 Albums of 2017
- "Meklit has had a wide-ranging career, with audacious and rewarding forays into pop, jazz... soul and singer-songwriter styles... But here she has an album that, more than anything Meklit had done before, caught the fullness of vision and talents." - KPCC LOS ANGELES
"From her Bay Area outpost, Meklit has served as a lighthouse of sorts, refracting American funk and soul through her Ethiopian background....Now more than ever, we need strong and bold people in music. Her rhythms and melodic storytelling are infectious and she’s unafraid to draw from her elders." - OWL MAGAZINE
"...A 21st-century iteration of Ethio-jazz by way of the Bay Area, a soul-steeped sound built on percussion, horns and Meklit’s unmistakably translucent, fresh-water vocals." - SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS
"A wildly groovy style of music." - ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
"Captivating" – THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
"Meklit… combines N.Y. jazz with West Coast folk and African flourishes, all bound together by her beguiling voice, which is part sunshine and part cloudy day.” - FILTER MAGAZINE
"Lilting, sensuous, capable of the leap from staccato jazz-cat to honeyed songbird, she conveys both fragility and great strength in a single line" – SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN (*cover story)
Poetic beauty abounded in Hadero's lyrics, sometimes complex, sometimes achingly, elegantly simple....Whatever the influences and comparisons that sprang to mind, the clearest message...was that Hadero was a singular talent and one to watch. - POPMATTERS