Frank Bessem's Musiques d'Afrique: Mamou Sidibé (Mali)

Musiques d'Afrique Musiques du Mali

Mamou Sidibé is another exponent of a young generation of singers from the south of Mali, this time from the ganadugu region. Daughter of a balafon player (her father) and a famous singer (her mother), the music was an integral part of her education. As a child, she sang during festivities in her village, and later also to encourage farmers during the work on the fields. Mamou, however, was decided to start a professional career in music and went to Bamako. At the end of the 1980s, she sang as backing vocal with Oumou Sangaré. Nearly 10 years later, she signed up with Mali K7 for a first album Nakan (1999), that was released internationally in 2001 on the French Cobalt label. The album was a success in the West African region and also brought her to the Africolor Festival in Saint-Denis (near Paris) in December 2000. The music of Mamou Sidibé can be described as a modernised wassoulou style and is comparable to the Mali-techno of Issa Bagayogo, which gave her the surname of "techno-Mamou". In April 2003, a second album has been released in Mali, musically more diverse, using more traditional instruments than on her first album. Source: www.mali-music.com

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