HKW ROYAL: Staff Benda Bilili

"Handmade futuristic funk." (Süddeutsche Zeitung)

Congolese rumba fusions with a Cuban nonchalance. Until – that is – they suddenly explode into action and celebrate the "rhythm of a third world metropolis that is collapsing and simultaneously urging people to dance.” (SZ). Staff Benda Bilili come from Kinshasa: from the street, as refugees of a seemingly never-ending Congolese civil war. Most of them have been crippled by polio. Some travel, sing and even dance in self-made wheelchairs. When a documentary on the band was premiered at the latest Cannes Film Festival, the audience went wild at this “dazzling whirlwind of archaic rhythm monsters and sparkling melodies." Westzeit