Background
He was born in Dire Dawa, Ethiopia.
He was born in Dire Dawa, Ethiopia.
Along with musicians such as Ali Birra, Shantam Shubissa is regarded one of Oromia’s significant contributors to music during the late 20th century The stage name ‘Shantam’ translates to English as the number "fifty". lieutenant was given after Shantam released a song where he composed the same chorus in five different languages: Arabic, Oromo, Somali, Amharic and Harari. The word shan ("five") morphed into shantam ("fifty").
The surname shubissa ("dance") was added later.
Together, his name is translated as "fifty dancer". In 2012, Shantam composed lyrics and music for 100 yet-to-be-released songs.