Tigist Shibabaw Eshururu from the African Dreams Album

Tigist was born and raised in the small northwestern Ethiopia town of Chagni. She was one of ten siblings, born into a family of coffee farmers that relied on the local river for their harvest. Her sister has described learning traditional songs from a priest in the family home,in spite of the Ethiopian Church generally prohibiting women from singing or playing music in church until the Derg era. Their household was always filled with entertainment; the children of the house where often recruited to entertain guests
Tigist immigrated to the United States in 2000 to pursue a music career, joining her older sister Gigi who was already a globally acclaimed musician in her own right. Their father had initially forbidden Gigi from becoming an entertainer
Tigist died at the age of twenty-eight in Bahar Dar, Ethiopia where she is said to have traveled on a spiritual journey shortly after she finished recording with Bole2Harlem. Details regarding the circumstances surrounding her passing never emerged, including the exact date of her death. She was buried in Chagni, Ethiopia, the town where she was born, among family.