If you were asked the question, ‘What do Ghana and Hungary have in common?’, you probably wouldn’t think to answer ‘music’ immediately. Born to a Hungarian mother and a Ghanaian father, Sena provides the missing link between the capital cities of Accra and Budapest, embodying the TRACE transcultural.
One of the most talented female emcees out there, Sena is at home in a variety of different genres of music ranging from hip-hop to spoken word, jazz, reggae and broken beat, and has worked with international heavy-hitters like DJ Vadim (US/UK/Russia), Dzihan and Kamien (Austria), Gimmeshot Crew (Hungary), Dizko Stu (Hungary), Marcel (Hungary), Colorblind Allstars (Spain), Papastomp (France), Refractory (France) and Ras Mac Bean (France), among others.
Sena grew up in Accra singing Hungarian folk songs with her mother and grandmother, learning traditional Ghanaian drumming and dancing, and raiding her father’s eclectic music collection of blues and funk, her mother’s classical and world music, her brother’s reggae and her sister’s hip hop and dancehall records.
Her musical journey as an MC began in 2001, after moving to Budapest, Hungary and grabbing the mic at the weekly hip-hop/dancehall freestyle sessions of local hip-hop crew, Gimmeshot. Sena’s soulful, Lauryn Hill-esque rhyming style has a seamless flow, almost as if she was streaming a pre-recorded set from her mind. Naturally, it didn’t take long for her to become recognized as the foremost female hip-hop/reggae singer of the country and to begin to spread her wings around the globe, collaborating with the hottest acts from three continents.
Sena keeps herself busy these days. You’ll find her powerful, feminine vocals shine on Fel A Kezekkel, the new album of Hungarian reggae band, Irie Maffia, and she has a new record out with Barabas Lorinc Ecclectrik, a Hungarian experimental jazz band that fuses hip-hop, funk, reggae and electronica. She recently collaborated with Parisian Band, whose new record, Hot Potatoes dropped at the end of March. Sena has also teamed up with French reggae distribution and production company, Irie Ites in Le Mans, to work on several new tracks.
When she’s not on tour repping her new albums, you’ll find her mc-ing to the sets of Djs in Hungary, such as Ozone, Cadik, Mango. She has also got plans to rock Ghana with the likes of Reggie Rockstone, Chorkor Heights and Evil Twin and many more.
Learn more and give her some love here.
Peep her new video with Barabas Lorinc Ecclectrik band.
