WOMAD

Youssou N'Dour et le Super Etoile de Dakar

From Senegal

Do you really need an introduction?
There are possibly only two individuals who've been totem figures for WOMAD, singers who defined exactly what the festival's original vision was all about. One is the late and undeniably great Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan; the other is surely Youssou N'Dour. When he first graced a WOMAD stage - in Clevedon back in 1986 - there was still a hint of the gangly youth about him. He may have already revolutionised Senegalese music by introducing that thrilling mbalax sound, but he was still only in his mid-twenties. Nearly a quarter of a century on, Youssou stands, behind Nelson Mandela and Kofi Annan, as arguably the third most famous living African. Yet despite this profile, he remains determinedly un-institutionalised and never shirks from dishing out the criticism to the high and mighty when it's deserved. Most pleasing of all though is the fact that both that weightless voice and his red-hot Super Etoile band remain as enthralling as the first time ever we saw his face.
Youssou N'Dour will also be making an appearance on Saturday 25 July 2009 at London Indigo. www.aeglive.co.uk
(Biography by Nige Tassell 2009)

Youssou N'Dour et le Super Etoile de Dakar's » Myspace Page