Get ready to bow! The Zawose Queens are taking over the ALICE stage! Singing in their native kigogo, the unstoppable trailblazers from Tanzania honor their heritage and traditions.

“This is our heritage, performed our way,” say Leah and Pendo Zawose, the two queens: vocalists, songwriters, and multi-instrumentalists from Tanzania. Through their music, they let their family tree speak—via the soaring chizeze violin, the buzzing ilimba thumb piano, the ngoma drums that chatter and thunder, and voices and voices that go deep, high and out there. Their music and movements carry a ceremonial weight, yet are fused with such infectious production that standing still feels impossible.

At the same time, their project pushes back against parts of their musical upbringing. Pendo’s father—and Leah’s grandfather—Hukwe Zawose once toured extensively with the music of the Wagogo people, known for its fluid polyrhythms and rapturous polyphonic vocals. But when he performed, women weren’t given much space on stage. “We were never allowed to sing lead vocals,” Pendo Zawose has said. Now, it’s Pendo and Leah Zawose who command center stage, singing in Kigogo about their passion for music, the wonders of life. Of pride in environment, in tradition. In their East African roots. Join us when the two trailblazers and their band take over ALICE’s stage!