M'Pongo Love

Aimee Françoise M'Pongo Langu (27 August 1956 – 15 January 1990), known professionally as M'Pongo Love, was a Congolese singer and songwriter. First taking up singing in a church choir, she quit her job when she was 19 years old to pursue a career as a vocalist. Beginning with support from other established musicians, M'Pongo eventually began writing her own compositions, often utilising feminist themes.

Biography Early life Aimee Françoise M'Pongo Langu was born on 27 August 1956 in Boma, Belgian Congo, the second daughter in a family of seven children. Her father, Gilbert Pongo, was a soldier, As a child, M'Pongo attended a church where her father was a cantor and began singing for the choir.

M'Pongo also sang in her secondary school choir and, when she graduated, she moved to Kinshasa and enrolled in a shorthand typing course. Afterwards she took a job as an executive secretary at a firm. She later produced music under her own label, "Love's Music". In a 1989 interview she explained her feminist views: