Mbira are a family of musical instruments, traditional to the Shona people of Zimbabwe. They consist of a wooden board with attached staggered metal tines, played by holding the instrument in the hands and plucking the tines with the thumbs, the right forefinger, and sometimes the left forefinger. Musicologists classify it as a lamellaphone, part of the plucked idiophone family of musical instruments. In Eastern and Southern Africa, there are many kinds of mbira, often accompanied by the hosho, a percussion instrument. It is often an important instrument played at religious ceremonies, weddings, and other social gatherings. The "Art of crafting and playing Mbira/Sansi, the finger-plucking traditional musical instrument in Malawi and Zimbabwe" was added to the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2020.
The balafon is a gourd-resonated xylophone, a type of struck idiophone. It is closely associated with the neighbouring Mandé, Senoufo and Gur peoples of West Africa, particularly the Guinean branch of the Mandinka ethnic group, but is now found across West Africa from Guinea to Mali. Its common name, balafon, is likely a European coinage combining its Mandinka name ߓߟߊ bala with the word ߝߐ߲ fôn 'to speak' or the Greek root phono.
Daniel Xavier-Marie Balavoine was a French singer and songwriter. He was hugely popular in the French-speaking world in the early 1980s; he inspired many singers of his generation such as Jean-Jacques Goldman, Michel Berger, who was his closest friend, as well as the Japanese pop-rock group Crystal King. Balavoine was a part of the original cast of the rock opera Starmania in 1978, which was written by Berger.
Stephan Eicher is a Swiss singer. He sings in a variety of languages, including French, German, English, Italian, Swiss German and Romansh, sometimes using different languages in the same song.
Florent Vollant is a Canadian singer-songwriter. An Innu from Maliotenam, Quebec, he was half of the popular folk music duo Kashtin, one of the most significant musical groups in First Nations history. He has subsequently released four solo albums.
.King Achilla Rufino Orru Apaa-idomo was a Uganda-born blind musician whose primary instrument was the lukembé. His ethnic background was Karamojong.
Wes Madiko, better known mononymously as Wes, was a Cameroonian musician. He is probably best known among Western audiences for his cover of "Upendi", from The Lion King II: Simba's Pride, as well as work with Deep Forest and his own 1997 hit "Alane" produced by Michel Sanchez.
Gaston Ghrenassia , known by his stage name Enrico Macias, is a French singer, songwriter and musician of Algerian Jewish descent.
Robert Goldman is a French songwriter. He was born in Paris, the son of Alter Mojze Goldman and Ruth Ambrunn who were Jewish Resistance fighters during the Second World War. He is the younger brother of Jean-Jacques Goldman and half-brother of Pierre Goldman.
Dali is a French-language album released in 1984 by French singer Dalida.
Damien Robitaille is a Canadian musician from the village of Lafontaine, Ontario in the Georgian Bay area, two hours north-west of Toronto. He is a Franco-Ontarian musician whose career is mainly based in Quebec, where he has lived since 2003.
Le chemin is the third studio album by the French singer Emmanuel Moire. As his contract with the Warner Music record label had expired in May 2011 after the release of his first album, (Là) Où je pars in 2007, and the follow up, L'Équilibre in 2009, Moire said in 2012 that he was searching for a new record label for materials he was preparing for a third album. At Mercury, an affiliate of Universal Music Group, he met Dominique Gau, who had just joined Mercury as artistic director from Warner, Olivier Nuss and Éric Lelièvre. He announced on 14 January 2013 that Mercury would release his forthcoming album.
Daniel Lévi was a French singer-songwriter, composer, and pianist.
Erick Benzi is a French musician, songwriter, composer, and record producer from Marseille.
Ian Bell is a Canadian folk musician, composer, and singer-songwriter who has been active in the Canadian folk music scene since the 1970s. With Anne Lederman, he was part of the seminal Canadian folk group Muddy York. He has been the leader of The Dawnbreakers and Professor Chalaupka's Celebrated Singing School. Bell has performed at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival and the Mariposa Folk Festival, among others. He has contributed to the development and preservation of Canadian folk music for more than twenty-five years. He sings both old songs and his own original compositions. His music has a Celtic flavour. He is a versatile musician who plays several instruments.
Daniel DeShaime, born Jean-Marie Deschênes on 2 August 1946 in Saint-Octave-de-l'Avenir, Quebec is a French-speaking Canadian singer.
Mehdi Bahmad is a Moroccan-Canadian singer-songwriter.
Salatiel Livenja Bessong, better known as Salatiel or "High man general", is a Cameroonian Music executive, the CEO of Alpha Better records located in Buea, Cameroon. In 2019, he featured on Beyoncé’s The Lion King: The Gift Album on the track "Water".
Michel Rivard is a singer-songwriter and musician from Quebec. He was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. His father, Robert Rivard, was an actor. Michel began his career at an early age appearing in a Canadian television series and in TV commercials.
