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Youssou N'Dour is a Senegalese singer, songwriter, musician, composer, occasional actor, businessman, and politician. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine described him as, "perhaps the most famous singer alive" in Senegal and much of Africa. From April 2012 to September 2013, he was Senegal's Minister of Tourism.
Senegal's music is best known abroad due to the popularity of mbalax, a development of Serer conservative njuup music and sabar drumming popularized internationally by Youssou N'Dour.
The Senegambia is, in the narrow sense, a historical name for a geographical region in West Africa, which lies between the Senegal River in the north and the Gambia River in the south. However, there are also text sources which state that Senegambia is understood in a broader sense and equated with the term the Western region. This refers to the coastal areas between Senegal and Sierra Leone, where the inland border in the east was not further defined.
Mamadou "Jimi" Mbaye is a Senegalese guitarist best known for his work with Youssou N'dour. Mbaye has developed a unique Senegalese guitar style in which he makes his Fender Stratocaster sound like local instruments such as the kora or xalam.
Mbalax is the national popular dance music of Senegal and the Gambia. In the 1970s, mbalax emerged as the distinctive sound of postcolonial Senegal. Derived from a fusion of indigenous Wolof sabar drumming with popular music principally from the African diaspora and African popular music, and to a lesser extent Western pop and afropop. Although the fusion of indigenous music with urban dance musics from the diaspora and west is not new, the pan-ethnic quality of urban Wolofness provided a space for the inclusion and representation of a plethora of ethnic sounds of the Pulaar/Tukulor, Sereer, Soce, Mande and other groups from the Greater Senegambia Region. The name mbalax derives from the accompanying rhythms of the Wolof sabar and was coined by Youssou N'Dour even though, as he has stated, there were many other groups in urban Senegal fusing these traditional sounds with modern musics.
Ashley Maher is a Canadian singer and songwriter who has meshed the rhythmic impulses of West Africa and Latin America with Western song structures.
Julia Sarr is a Mezzo-soprano born in Dakar (Senegal) from the Serer ethnic group. As one of the most sought after backing vocalists, she has worked with several prominent artists over the years including Youssou N'Dour, Lokua Kanza and Patrice Larose.
Mbaye Dieye Faye is a singer and a Senegalese percussionist.
Alioune Mbaye Nder is a Senegalese singer. Nder takes his name from the n'der, the drum favoured by his griot father.
N'Dour is a typical Gambian and Senegalese patronym of the Serer people. They are the same people but because the French colonised Senegal and the British colonised the Gambia, there are variations in spelling but pronounced the same way. They share the same surname with the 15th century Serer King of Saloum Maat Saloum Mbegani Ndour also known as Mbegan Ndour.
Habib Faye was a bassist, keyboardist, guitar soloist, arranger, composer and Grammy-nominated producer from Senegal. He was mostly known as the musical director for Youssou N'dour's Super Étoile de Dakar. He was one of the most talented African bassists of the last quarter-century.
Egypt is a Grammy Award-winning album by the Senegalese musician Youssou N'Dour, on which he is accompanied by the Egyptian Fathy Salama Orchestra. By incorporating Arabic influences and focusing on Muslim religious themes, the album was a departure from previous N'Dour releases. In the original Senegalese release, it was named Sant Allah.
Star Band is a music group from Senegal that was the resident band of Dakar's Miami Club. They, along with the many off-shoots of the band, are responsible for many of the crucial developments in Senegalese popular music. They were formed in 1959 by the owner of the Miami Club, Ibra Kasse. As was typical in Africa at the time, Kasse owned the instruments and was the band leader of the Star Band although he only occasionally played piano. Each one of the band's twelve albums released in Senegal featured a photo of Kasse on the back cover stating that he was the band leader, composer and arranger.
The Senegal Music Awards (SENMA) is an annual celebration of the best of the music industry in Senegal. The event was instituted in 2008. Awards based on performances made in the previous year in 56 categories. The ceremonies include performances by some of the nominees. Is equivalent of South African Music Awards and Grammy awards.
Étoile de Dakar were a leading music group of Senegal in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Youssou N'Dour was one of the singers in the band and the band was a major part of N'Dour's rise to stardom in Senegal.
Yandé Codou Sène was a Senegalese singer from the Serer ethnic group. She was born in 1932 at Somb in the Sine-Saloum delta and died on July 15, 2010 at Gandiaye in Sénégal. She was the official griot of president Léopold Sédar Senghor. Most of her music is in the Serer language.
The Njuup tradition is a Serer style of music rooted in the Ndut initiation rite, which is a rite of passage that young Serers must go through once in their lifetime as commanded in the Serer religion.
Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi is an American documentary filmmaker. She was the director, along with her husband, Jimmy Chin, for the film Free Solo, which won the 2019 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. The film profiled Alex Honnold and his free solo climb of El Capitan in June 2017.
Musa Ngum was a singer and songwriter who was very popular in Senegal and Gambia. He was one of the pioneers of mbalax music, and "helped to define the mbalax style of popular music in the Senegambia" and "had a strong influence on Youssou N'Dour and other mbalax pioneers". He was "something of a cult icon back in the Senegambia region, and a pioneer of the mbalax fusion style". The mbalax, which originated from the Serer religious and ultra–conservative njuup music tradition sang during Ndut rites by circumcised boys was the foundation of Ngum's music career. He mastered many of the njuup classics and built a name for himself whilst at the same time developing his voice.
Marie Samuel Njie was a musician and singer, from, and popular in, The Gambia.
References
- 1 2 3 4 Titi. Interview by S. Frazer. UK Gambians. UKGambian.com, n.d. Web. 11 Oct. 2010. <http://www.ukgambians.net/entertainment/titi-interview.htm>.
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