Who is Youssou N'Dour? Dour is know around the world as a Senegalese singer, percussionist and occasional actor. In 2004, Rolling Stone described him as, in Senegal and much of Africa, "perhaps the most famous singer alive."[1] He helped develop a style of popular music in Senegal, known by its Wolof language name of mbalax.
Background
Mbalax is a blend of the country's traditional griot percussion and praise-singing with the Afro-Cuban and Haitian kompa arrangements and flavors which made the return trip from the Caribbean to West Africa in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s and have flourished in West Africa ever since. Beginning in the mid-1970s the resulting mix was modernized with a gloss of more complex indigenous Senegalese dance rhythms, roomy and melodic guitar and saxophone solos, chattering talking-drum soliloquies and, on occasion, Sufi-inspired Muslim religious chant. This created a new music which was at turns nostalgic, restrained and stately, or celebratory, explosively syncopated and funky. Younger Senegalese musicians steeped in Jimi Hendrix, Carlos Santana, James Brown, and the whole range of American jazz, soul, and rock music, which Senegal's cosmopolitan capital, Dakar, had enthusiastically absorbed, were rediscovering their heritage and seeking out traditional performers, particularly singers and talking drummers, to join their bands. (The griots—musicians, praise-singers and storyteller-historians—comprise a distinct hereditary caste in Wolof society and throughout West Africa.) As it emerged from this period of fruitful musical turbulence, mbalax would eventually find in Youssou N'Dour the performer who has arguably had more to do with its shaping than any other individual.N'Dour was born 1 October 1959 in Dakar.He began performing at the age of 12. Within a couple of years he was performing regularly with the Star Band, Dakar's most popular group in the early 1970s. Several members of the Star Band joined Orchestre Baobab about that time.
Although N’Dour has connections to the traditional griot caste on his mother’s side, he wasn’t raised in that tradition, learning it instead from his siblings. His parents encouraged him to look at things in a more modern manner, leaving him open to two cultures, with the result that he refers to himself as a modern griot.
In 1979, he formed his own ensemble, the Etoile de Dakar. His early work with Etoile de Dakar was in the typical Latin style popular all over Africa during that time, but in the 1980s he developed a unique sound when he started his current group, Super Etoile de Dakar featuring Jimi Mbaye on guitar, bassist Habib Faye, and Tama (talking drum) player Assane Thiam.
In July 1993, an African opera composed by N'Dour premiered at the Opéra Garnier for the French Festival Paris quartier d'été. He wrote and performed the official anthem of the 1998 FIFA World Cup with Axelle Red "La Cour des Grands".[3] Youssou N'Dour was nominated Goodwill Ambassador of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on 16 October 2000.[9]
N'Dour's major asset is that he is strongly grounded in his culture. Even if he chooses to explore elsewhere, his roots are well established. Some have gone so far as describing him as the African Artist of the Century (Folk Roots magazine). He has toured internationally for almost 30 years. He won his first American Grammy Award (best contemporary world music album) for his CD Egypt in 2005.
By 1991 he had opened his own recording studio, Xippi, and by 1995 his own record label, Jololi. He is also proprietor of L'Observateur, one of the largest-circulation newspapers in Senegal, and the radio station RFM (Radio Future Medias).N'Dour has associated himself with several social and political issues. In 1985, he organized a concert for the release of Nelson Mandela. He was a featured performer in the 1988 worldwide Amnesty International Human Rights Now! Tour collaborating with Lou Reed to contribute a version of the Peter Gabriel song Biko which was produced by Richard James Burgess and featured on the Amnesty International benefit album The Secret Policeman's Third Ball. He has also worked with the United Nations and UNICEF and he started Project Joko to open internet cafés in Africa and to connect Senegalese communities around the world. He performed at three of the Live 8 concerts (in Live 8 concert, London, Live 8 concert, Paris and at the Live 8 concert, Eden Project in Cornwall) on 2 July 2005, with Dido.[10]
In 2006, N'Dour played the African-British abolitionist Olaudah Equiano in the movie Amazing Grace, which chronicles the efforts of William Wilberforce to end slavery in the British Empire.[11]
He covered John Lennon's "Jealous Guy" for the 2007 CD Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur. He also featured in a joint Spain-Senegal ad campaign against illegal immigrants.
Youssou N'Dour participated in the Stock Exchange of Visions project in 2007.[12]
Since 2007 he is also council member of the World Future Council.
In 2009 N'Dour released his song "Wake Up (It's Africa Calling)" under Creative Commons license to help IntraHealth International in their IntraHealth Open campaign to bring open source health applications to Africa. The song was remixed by a variety of artists including Nas, Peter Buck of R.E.M., and Duncan Sheik to help raise money for the campaign.
Discography
- Bitim Rew (1984)
- Nelson Mandela (1986)
- Immigrés (1988)
- The Lion (1989)
- Set (1990)
- Eyes Open (1992)
- The Guide (Wommat) (1994)
- Djamil (1996)
- Inedits 84-85 (1997)
- Special Fin D'annee Plus (1999)
- Lii (2000)
- Joko: From Village To Town (2000)
- Rewmi (2000)
- Le Grand Bal (2000)
- St. Louis (2000)
- Le Grand Bal a Bercy (2001)
- Ba Tay (2002)
- Nothing's In Vain (2002)
- Youssou N'Dour and His Friends (2002)
- Kirikou (2004)
- Egypt (2004)
- Alsaama Day (2007)
- Rokku Mi Rokka (2007) — #30 in Rolling Stone's Top 50 Albums of 2007.[13]
- Special Fin D'annee : Salegne-Salegne (2009)
- Dakar - Kingston (2010)
Compilations
- The Best of Youssou N'Dour (1995)
- Euleek Sibir with Omar (You et Pene) (1996)
- Immigrés/Bitim Rew (1997)
- Best of the 80's (1998)
- Hey You: The Essential Collection 1988–1990 (1998)
- Birth of a Star (2001)
- Rough Guide to Youssou N'Dour & Etoile de Dakar (2002)
- 7 Seconds: The Best of Youssou N'Dour (Remastered) (2004)
- Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur — John Lennon's "Jealous Guy" (2007)
Singles
| Year | Title | Chart positions | Album | |||||||
| US Hot 100 | US Modern Rock | US Mainstream Rock | UK Singles | European Singles | France Singles | German Singles | Swedish Singles | |||
| 1989 | "Shaking the Tree" (with Peter Gabriel) | - | # 9 | - | #61 | - | - | - | - | The Lion. |
| 1994 | "7 Seconds" | #98 | - | - | # 3 | # 8 | # 1 | # 3 | # 3 | (Single). Duet with Neneh Cherry. |
| 2002 | "So Many Men" (feat. Joy Denalane) | - | - | - | - | - | # 35 | - | - | Nothing's in Vain (Coono du reer). (Single). Duet with Pascal Obispo. |
Films
Amazing Grace (2006)- As Olaudah Equiano. "A central figure in the abolitionist movement in Great Britain, Olaudah Equiano (c.1745–97) wrote an eyewitness account of his life as a slave and of his work in the anti-slavery movement: The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano."
- As a musician on the film's soundtrack.
- As himself, journeying from the island of Gorée to the USA and back, exploring the origins of jazz, which go back to the era of slave trade in Africa, through a concert performed by an international group of artists.
- As himself, through the recording of Egypt album and its repercussions.
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