Frank Bessem's Musiques d'Afrique: Kandia Kouyaté (Mali)

Musiques d'Afrique Musiques du Mali

Kandia Kouyaté hails from the town of Kita, in the West of Mali, where so many musicians come from. Before she was born, it was predicted that she would be very successful. Her father, although a balafon player himself, did not want her to go into music and planned a solid education in stead of the uncertainty of a musical career. Secretly, Kandia learnt from her mother and her uncle how to sing and started to perform occasionally at private gatherings. In the mid 1970s, her father fell very ill and she decided to leave school and joined the Apollos, a popular dance band in Bamako, led by Kandia's uncle Mady Sylla Kouyaté. At age of 18, she married into the town of Kayes, where she received more musical education from her mother-in-law. A visit to Abidjan led to a first recording in 1980. Back in Bamako, she was invited by a wealthy businessman Amary Daou who gave her large sums of money and a car as gifts and he later permitted her to record a second album. Her music also attracted the attention of another rich businessman Babani Sissoko, who gave her and her ensemble (at the time with kora virtuoso Toumani Diabaté and Bouba Sacko) money, a car and a small airplane. This all indicates her tremendous popularity in Mali. Outside Mali, she was not that famous because she refused to make a CD-recording for a long time. It is nearly two decades after the start of her career that her voice and talent can be heard by an international audience.

Back to Frank Bessem's Musiques du Mali

Copyright © 1998-2009 Frank Bessem