Malian musical duo
"Amadou Bagayoko" redirects here. For the Sierra Leonean footballer, see
Amadou Bakayoko
.
Amadou & Mariam
are a musical duo from
Mali
, composed of the
Bamako
-born couple
Amadou Bagayoko
(guitar and vocals) (born 24 October 1954) and
Mariam Doumbia
(vocals) (born 15 April 1958).
Their album
Welcome To Mali
(2008) was nominated for a
Grammy Award for Best Contemporary World Music Album
.
Amadou lost his vision at the age of 16, while Mariam became blind at age 5 as a consequence of untreated measles. Known as "the blind couple from Mali", they met at Mali's Institute for the Young Blind, where they both performed at the institute's Eclipse Orchestra, directed by Idrissa Soumaouro, and found they shared an interest in music.
Style
[
edit
]
The duo's early recordings in the 1980s and 1990s featured sparse arrangements of guitar and voice. Since the late 1990s Amadou & Mariam have produced music that mixes traditional Mali sound with
rock guitars
, Syrian violins, Cuban trumpets, Egyptian
ney
, Indian
tablas
and
Dogon
percussion. In combination these elements have been called "
Afro-blues
".
Career
[
edit
]
By 1985 the couple had made a name for themselves playing Malian blues. They embarked on a tour of
Burkina Faso
. In 1986 the couple moved to
Cote d'Ivoire
and recorded several cassette albums. During this time they met
Stevie Wonder
, and the duo started playing at festivals around the world.
[
citation needed
]
By 1996 the duo moved to Paris where they were signed to Polygram's Emarcy label. In 1998 they released their first album recorded outside of Africa,
Sou Ni Tile
. The track "Je pense a toi" was a hit on French radio and the album went on to sell 100,000 copies. In 2003 they were approached by
World
?
Latin music
star
Manu Chao
, who then produced their 2004 album
Dimanche a Bamako
("Sunday in Bamako"), which also features his distinctive vocals.
In 2005 The Cote d'Ivoire recordings were released for the first time on CD as a limited edition box set and "best of" collection,
1990?1995: Le Meilleur Des Annees Maliennes
. Amadou & Mariam won the French Victoire de la Musique prize for best World Music album of the year with
Dimanche a Bamako
. On 26 October (2005) after their show at the Olympia in Paris, they were awarded a platinum disc by the French Ministry of Culture for selling 300,000 units of
Dimanche a Bamako
. They also won two BBC Radio 3 Awards for World Music in the African and Best Album categories for
Dimanche a Bamako
. In 2006, they recorded, together with
Herbert Gronemeyer
, the official anthem for the
2006 FIFA World Cup
"
Celebrate the Day
" (German: "Zeit, dass sich was dreht"). The song topped the German charts in June 2006. They went on to play major festivals in the US including
Coachella
and
Lollapalooza
. On 26 June 2007 they took part in Damon Albarn's "Africa Express" project at Glastonbury with a line-up including Rachid Taha,
K'Naan
, Tony Allen, Fat Boy Slim and Tinariwen. This was also their first encounter with
Jake Shears
of the
Scissor Sisters
. They then supported the Scissor Sisters on their UK tour, including three nights at London's O2 Arena . In summer of 2008, they played the Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago, Illinois and the
Latitude Festival
in
Henham Park
, Suffolk.
In 2008 they released their 6th album
Welcome To Mali
with the participation of K'Naan,
Keziah Jones
,
-M-
and
Damon Albarn
. Their song "Sabali" was placed 15 on
Pitchfork Media
's
Top 100 Best Tracks of 2008.
[1]
It also became the most-played French single worldwide of 2009.
[2]
In the same year they had played the main stage at Glastonbury Festival.
Amadou & Mariam won the Best Group category in the inaugural Songlines Music Awards (2009) ? announced 1 May 2009 ? the new world music awards organised by the UK-based magazine,
Songlines
. On 26 May, they played a gig to support the homeless charity Crisis at the
Union Chapel
, in north London where they were joined on stage by their hero, Pink Floyd's guitarist,
David Gilmour
, who played second guitar supporting the whole 80-minute set and a 5-minute encore. On 8 June, they performed on
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon
on US TV Channel NBC. That same year, they supported
Blur
during their two reunion gigs in Hyde Park and also supported UK based band
Coldplay
on their
Viva la Vida Tour
on 8 shows. They also performed their duo set
L'Afrique C'est Chic
at the Jazz Cafe in London where they were joined on-stage by special guests including Theophilus London, Beth Orton, Krystle Warren; and they performed a headline show at the Roundhouse, London as part of the iTunes Festival. Also in the 2009, they became
Zeitz Foundation
Ambassadors for Culture (Art); they help raise awareness and shape activities in their respective dimension. They performed live at the
2009 Nobel Peace Prize
ceremony.
[3]
In 2010, their joint autobiography
Away From the Light of Day
was published in the UK by Route Publishing.
[4]
On 11 June, Amadou & Mariam appeared on FIFA's Kick-Off Celebration for 2010's World Cup, hosted in South Africa, alongside Alicia Keys, John Legend, Tinariwen and Shakira in front of 80,000 people and hundreds of millions of TV viewers.
[5]
That same year, Amadou & Mariam contributed the song "Tambara" to the
Enough Project
and
Downtown Records
' Raise Hope for Congo compilation. Proceeds from the compilation fund efforts to make the protection and empowerment of Congo's women a priority, as well as inspire individuals around the world to raise their voice for peace in Congo.
Welcome To Mali
was nominated for a
Grammy Award for Best Contemporary World Music Album
at the
52nd Annual Grammy Awards
. They were chosen by
Matt Groening
to perform at the edition of the
All Tomorrow's Parties
festival he curated in May 2010 in
Minehead
, England.
In February 2011, Amadou & Mariam performed as one of the support acts for
U2
during the Johannesburg and Cape Town legs of their
U2 360
Tour. In July, they performed their first concerts in the dark,
Eclipse
, which were commissioned by the Manchester International Festival. They went on to stage these shows in London in November 2011, and in Paris in January 2012. In 2011, they also became ambassadors for the
World Food Programme
.
[6]
They travelled to Haiti and offered a new song "Labendela" (Children are the future) as an anthem. Their early biography
Away From The Light of Day
was published in the US.
Their eighth album
Folila
was released on 2 April 2012.
Folila
, which means "music" in Bambara, was recorded in Bamako and New York with special guests including
Santigold
,
TV on the Radio
, and Jake Shears. The first single of the album "Dougou Badia" was released on 20 January. The track featuring guest appearance of Santigold, was hailed by the
NME
as "a chuffing great masterstroke of genre-less genre mixing".
[7]
In France, the track "Oh Amadou" which is a duet with
Bertrand Cantat
, was chosen as a single.
On 22 September 2017 they released their album
La Confusion
to mixed reviews.
[3]
Discography
[
edit
]
Studio albums
[
edit
]
Compilations
[
edit
]
- 2005:
Je pense a toi: The Best of Amadou & Mariam
- 2006:
1990?1995 Le Meilleur des Annees Maliennes
- 2007:
Paris Bamako
(DVD + CD 12 titres live)
- 2009:
The Magic Couple: The Best of Amadou & Mariam 1997?2002
Contributing artist
[
edit
]
Singles
[
edit
]
(Selective / charting)
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
|
---|
International
| |
---|
National
| |
---|
Artists
| |
---|
Other
| |
---|