Sampa Tembo, aka Sampa The Great, is a Zambian singer-songwriter and rapper, known for her explosive on stage performances and powerful messages of equality. Sampa Tembo was born in Zambia 2003 and raised in Botswana. She moved to Sydney in 2014 and is now based in Melbourne.
Her debut mixtape, The Great Mixtape, was released for free and was produced by Sydney producer and musician Dave Rodriguez, who performs jazz under the moniker Godriguez. Sampa credits her African youth as the source of her 'political consciousness'.
After the release of her debut single Black Dignity, Sampa featured on Urthboy's album The Past Beats Inside Me Like a Second Heartbeat on the track Second Chance with OKENYO. In 2018, Sampa released her debut album The Return and it won the Australian Music Prize, achieving critical acclaim and peaking at #12 on the ARIA charts.
Sampa the Great's career progressed further upon the release of her debut album The Return. This album featured the singles Energy, OMG, Freedom, Time's Up and most famously, Final Form, which was nominated for Best Video and Best Hip Hop release at the ARIA awards of 2019. She eventually won the Australian Music Award for the album.
Most recently, she teamed up with Baker Boy in September 2020 to release the single, Better Days.
