On The Cover: Nathalie Makoma

Nathalie Makoma (born on 24 February 1982 in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, then called Zaire) is a Dutch-Congolese singer formerly of a family musical group called Makoma. She turned solo in 2003. She was signed to Sony BMG. She married in 2009. Nathalie Makoma started her singing in a family group established by her older brother Tutala Makoma in 1993 when the band was known as “Nouveau Testament”. She immigrated with her family to Netherlands, then to Germany and back to the Netherlands. “Nouveau Testament” was renamed Makoma. The group was made up of 7 siblings (3 brothers and 3 sisters) in addition to Nathalie Makoma, were her siblings Annie Makoma, Pengani Makoma, Tutala Makoma, Duma Makoma, Martin Makoma and a non-family member, Annie Makoma’s boyfriend Patrick Badine. Makoma sings in Lingala and in English. In 2002, the group won the Best African Music Group at the Kora African Music Awards. In 2004, Nathalie Makoma left the band briefly and established herself in England and later in Ireland. She released ‘On Faith’ in 2003 and ‘I Saw the Light’ in 2005. In 2007-2008, she returned to the Netherlands and participated in Idols 4 in the Netherlands and finished runner-up. Her family group Makoma made a guest appearance on the Idols final with Nathalie singing Ola Olé in English with her. In 2009, Nathalie took part in the Dutch version of the Dancing with the Stars and joined her dance partner Peter in the final, but lost to Jamai Loman ending as runner-up. She also married her current manager Jean-Claude Atamboto in 2009. In 2010, she took part in the second season of the program De Mattheus Masterclass of non-classically trained artists, to perform music by Bach at the church St. Vituskerk in Hilversum. In 2011, Nathalie was dropped by Sony BMG. Nathalie auditioned for The X Factor (UK) in July 2011. She has already progressed to the Judges Houses stage for the Overs category. Source: Internet