Fatoumata Diawara (MLI)
Afropop
Saturday 11th February / Doors at 21:00 / Tickets: 100 kr (80 kr. for students)
Tickets at the door
Fatoumata Diawara has packed a lot of experience into her 28 years. Born in Ivory Coast of Malian parents, she achieved local fame as a dancer before moving to Bamako in her early teens and starting an acting career. Amongst other work, she starred in Cheikh Oumar Sissoko's film La Genese.
Moving to Paris in her early twenties she spent six years touring internationally with the theatre troupe Royal de Luxe, going on to star in the musical Kirikou et Karaba, while recording and touring with Oumou Sangare and writing her own film script. All of which has fuelled her passion to develop her own music, composing, arranging and playing her own material, blending Wassalou traditions and wider influences into a spacious acoustic environment where the warm tones of her voice can glissade and glide.
Damon Albarn, Toumani Diabaté, Herbie Hancock and Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones are just a few of the major players who have fallen for Fatou’s effortless musical charm, as her presence has lit up shows by Africa Express, AfroCubism and Hancock’s ‘Imagine’ project. Yet her debut “Fatou” is almost entirely her own work: self-composed and arranged, with her own backing vocals and percussion. It breathes with the natural warmth, confidence and spontaneity that are the essence of Fatou.
