”I was always singing. At school, after school. I was the laziest one in my family because I just didn’t have time, my time was…
Artist Profiles: Busi Mhlongo
Category: Artist Profiles
Artist Profiles: Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars
All the members of Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars lived in or near Sierra Leone’s capital city before fleeing Freetown during the country’s decade-long civil…
Artist Profiles: Omar Pene
Omar Pene (born 1956 in Dakar) is the iconic lead singer of the Super Diamono. He was born in the working class neighborhood of Derkle,…
Artist Profiles: Juldeh Camara
Juldeh Camara is a master musician from Gambia. He was born in 1966 in Basse, Gambia. Camara is a virtuoso of the ritti, a one-stringed…
Artist Profiles: Femi Kuti
One of the heirs of the genius of Nigerian Afrobeat superstar Fela Kuti is his son, Femi. Femi’s version of Afrobeat is the exciting new…
Artist Profiles: Fela Kuti
Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, previously Ransome-Kuti, was born in Abeokuta, Nigeria, in 1938. His family belonged to the Egba branch of the Yoruba tribe. His father, like…
Artist Profiles: Abdoulaye Alhassane Toure
Abdoulaye Alhassane was born in 1963 in Niamey (Niger) to a Sonrai family from Gao (Mali). He is a superb multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, and producer.…
Artist Profiles: Malouma
Malouma Mint Moktar Ould Meidah was born in the 1960s in Mederdra (Traiza), into a family of griots (singers who work as oral historians). Her…
Artist Profiles: Daby Touré
Daby Toure had a rural upbringing in Mauritania, but this first solo album betrays his Senegalese family roots. After touring in support of Peter Gabriel’s…
Malian Kora Maestro Toumani Diabate
Toumani Diabate was one of the most brilliant players of the kora (a 21-string harp-lute from West Africa). He was born in 1965 in Bamako…