![]() She released her Three album, Gold and Wax on Palm Pictures, in 2006. Gigi's voice can be heard in the Hollywood film Beyond Borders (2003), in which Angelina Jolie portrays an aid worker during the 1984 - 1985 famine in Ethiopia. The album was a return to a mainly acoustic sound for Gigi, incorporating instruments such as the krar and the tabla. Bill Laswell played guitar and keyboard (instead of his usual bass), and several of Gigi's family members contributed vocals. This release was soon followed by Illuminated Audio, an ambient dub style remix of the album by Laswell.ΔΆ003 saw the release of Zion Roots, under the band name Abyssinia Infinite. The album was a critical success internationally and generated controversy in her home country for such a radical break with Ethiopian popular music. The result was a fusion of contemporary and traditional sounds. Blackwell and Gigi's producer (and later, husband) Bill Laswell, decided to use American jazz musicians (including Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Pharoah Sanders, and others) to accompany Gigi on the album. She had been noticed by Palm Pictures owner Chris Blackwell, who had years earlier introduced reggae to the mainstream through his former label, Island Records. Gigi recorded two albums for the expatriate Ethiopian community, but it was her 2001 album, titled simply Gigi, that brought her widespread attention. She lived in Kenya for a few years before moving to San Francisco in about 1998. She has described learning traditional songs from an Ethiopian Orthodox priest in the family home. Gigi was born and raised in Chagni in northwestern Ethiopia. She has performed the music of Ethiopia in combination with a wide variety of other genres, often in collaboration with her husband Bill Laswell, a bassist and producer. Ejigayehu Shibabaw, known by her stage name Gigi (born 1974), is an Ethiopian singer.
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