Born in 1958, Tete Dalle Penda Jeannot served in the Cameroon Navy and the Republican Guard from 1976 until 1980. At that time, he was part of the band Les New-Star de Bonadibong. Around 1977, 1978 he and this group released a 45rpm single on the label Disques Cousin. On side A is the song Bonadibong and on the B-side the song Bekwedi Ndolam. Both are written by Penda Dalle, who also does the vocals.
At the age of 22 Penda Dalle left the army and became guitarist in La Musette, the band that Emile Kangue formed after he had quitted Les Black Styl. In 1980 he started his solo career with the release of the 45rpm single Se to mba / Ne nde muna musango on the Africa Oumba label.
During the 80's and 90's
"Jeandall" released a string of records and became a popular Makossa star. In 2000 he recorded the very successful album
L'espoir de ma vie, which was followed in 2011 by
Best of nostalgie vol. 1.
Clip: 2001 Penda Dalle - Nostalgie 1
Penda Dalle also participated in
Manu Dibango's Kamer All Stars project together with,
Salle John,
Henry Njoh, Guy Nsangue, Yves Ndjock and others. On this album he takes care of the rhythm guitar and contributes one of his personal favorites, the classic song
Nyong'a mama.
Since then his fans had to wait ten years for a new album, but in 2011 he came back with
Sona ndolo.Today, he has his own YouTube channel
La croisiere des artistes, through which he interviews other Cameroonian artists, making an important contribution to capturing the musical heritage of Cameroon.
Recently, he and his longtime musical pal Emile Kangue went back into the studio to record a four-song maxi-single, including the duet Dja o biala that was released in 2021. Penda Dallé died in Paris on 26 December 2022, at the age of 64.
