Frank Bessem's Musiques d'Afrique: Nahawa Doumbia (Mali)

Musiques d'Afrique Musiques du Mali

Nahawa Doumbia is one of the main female singers from the Wassoulou region in South Mali. Her popularity is only surpassed by Oumou Sangaré, but equal to that of Sali Sidibé. Since her mother died shortly after Nahawa's birth, she grew up with her grandmother in Manankoro near Bougouni. Although her mother predicted shortly before she died that Nahawa would be a singer, her family had tried for a long time to prevent this from happening. Finally, civil servants from the Ministry of Culture discovered her voice, and she first appeared on stage in 1980 at the biënnale of Bamako. She recorded some 3 albums in the 1980s, before the producer Ibrahima Sylla took her to Paris for recording sessions with Boncana Maiga resulting in the 1988 album « Didadi ». That was the starting point of an international career. On the albums « Didadi », « Nyama Toutou », and « Mangoni », the approach was to fuse African (wassoulou) rhythms and modern recording technology and instrumentation.

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