A rat-a-tat percussion and keyboard riff, and Youssou N’Dour’s voice tore via the darkish Dakar sky, because the world music legend geared as much as do what he does greatest — rock via the evening.
With a brand new album out and a world tour beginning this week, the Senegalese icon and Grammy Award winner — who confesses he “couldn’t live without music” — exhibits no indicators of slowing down regardless of his 45 years in present enterprise.
“Let’s rock,” he barked to his 12-piece band Super Etoile at round an hour to midnight, earlier than the strains of one among their final pre-tour rehearsals rang out properly into the small hours.
Five years after his final album, N’Dour’s newest document “Eclairer Le Monde” (Light The World) voices his dedication to human rights and provides a spot of honour to conventional African devices, a characteristic of his extraordinary profession.
“It’s been nothing but a blast!” the 65-year-old advised AFP of his many years in music.
In that point he has minimize dozens of gold discs and laid down tracks with the likes of Peter Gabriel, Paul Simon, Sting, Manu Dibango and Neneh Cherry.
After all that, why throw himself into one other document and a grueling transatlantic tour schedule taking in Paris, London, Munich and New York?
“Simple — I’m still passionate!”
Hailed because the “king of Mbalax”, his personal city musical melting pot of Senegalese rhythms and Latin types, N’Dour introduced his pioneering world music to worldwide acclaim from the Nineteen Eighties onwards.
His 1994 hit “Seven Seconds” with Neneh Cherry shot up the charts internationally, whereas his frequent collaborations noticed him bridge the divide between Western and African music.
“When I relisten to all the things I’ve had the chance to do, I regret nothing,” he advised AFP on the sidelines of the rehearsal within the Senegalese capital.
A multi-talented musician, songwriter, producer and arranger, N’Dour possesses a bewitching vocal vary, reaching spine-tingling highs as Super Etoile ran via a frenetic rendition of his music “Boul Ma Lathie”.
He hoped his newest album would “restore prestige” to world music.
Along with the rhythm of the djembe — a conventional drum — the songs characteristic conventional devices such because the kora, sokou, ngoni and balafon.
All are “extraordinary in terms of their sound” to his ears.
Another purpose for his new document: to function a “source” for youthful individuals working in African pop music.
“Eclairer le monde” options many younger musicians taking part in African devices “whose knowledge has been passed down from their parents”, he mentioned.
He was “enormously touched” that the music he has made nonetheless resonates at this time, with youthful artists sampling and overlaying his tunes.
“It sends me into orbit,” he mentioned.
Born within the working-class Medina neighborhood of Dakar to an ironmonger father, the artist has a quarter-century of human rights activism behind him alongside his years of musical success.
His newest album hails “universal love for one’s fellow human”, whereas on “Sa ma habiibi” (My Love) he requires respect for ladies’s rights and condemns compelled marriage.
On “Sam Fall” and “Ahmadou Bamba”, his voice floats delicately above the band in tributes to Senegal’s spirituality.
“Music is entertainment — we make people happy, people party to music — but we’re aware that it’s a force,” he mentioned.
“Culture is the beginning and the end of where peoples and generations meet. We must continue to use it to deliver messages, to push powerful ideas such as human rights and mutual respect.”
Ibou Cisse, N’Dour’s keyboardist since 1987, put his boss’s lengthy profession right down to “talent, passion” and companionship in addition to his dedication to social and cultural causes.
On high of all that the singer can also be a businessman and press mogul, has based his personal political motion and served as Senegal’s tradition minister from 2012 to 2014.
Given his hectic schedule does he ever see himself retiring from recording and now not taking part in live shows?
“I’ll continue playing music until my last breath,” he replied. “I noticed my grandmother sing at ceremonies, christenings and weddings when she was 80 or so… when the music is in you out of your start, it will likely be with you till you are gone.
“I couldn’t live without music,” he added. “As long as there is music, there is life.”
© 2025 AFP