![wimoweh mbube wimoweh mbube](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/70/bc/bd/70bcbdac7b404fa6ff1da7944841ba37--the-lion-sleeps-tonight-ukelele.jpg)
"Mbube" was a major success for Linda and the Evening Birds, reportedly selling more than 100,000 copies in South Africa by 1949. In 1939, while recording a number of songs in the studio, Linda improvised the song "Mbube" (Lion).
![wimoweh mbube wimoweh mbube](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/4-Z0qK2G-Bg/maxresdefault.jpg)
Italian immigrant Eric Gallo owned what at that time was sub-Saharan Africa's only recording studio. Sound sample of " Mbube" performed by Solomon Linda's Original Evening Birds (1939).Īfter Linda started working at the Gallo Record Company's Roodepoort plant in 1938 as a record packer, the Evening Birds were witnessed by company talent scout Griffith Motsieloa. Linda's musical popularity grew with the Evening Birds, who presented "a very cool urban act that wears pinstriped suits, bowler hats and dandy two-tone shoes".
![wimoweh mbube wimoweh mbube](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/xivKZRgKMSk/maxresdefault.jpg)
The group evolved from performances at weddings to choir competitions. They were all Linda's friends from Pomeroy. The members of the group were Solomon Linda (soprano), Gilbert Madondo (alto), Boy Sibiya (tenor), with Gideon Mkhize, Samuel Mlangeni, and Owen Sikhakhane as basses. Linda found employment at Johannesburg's Carlton Hotel and started a new group that retained the Evening Birds name. He worked in the Mayi Mayi Furniture Shop on Small Street and sang in a choir known as the Evening Birds, managed by his uncles, Solomon and Amon Madondo, and which disbanded in 1933. In 1931, Linda, like many other young African men at that time, left his homestead to find menial work in Johannesburg, by then a sprawling gold-mining town with a great demand for cheap labour. He attended the Gordon Memorial mission school, where he learned about Western musical culture, hymns, and participated in choir contests. Solomon Popoli Linda was born near Pomeroy, on the labor reserve Msinga, Umzinyathi District Municipality in Ladysmith in Natal, where he was familiar with the traditions of amahubo and izingoma zomshado (wedding songs) music.