Moutarou "Daby" Balde is from the isolated region of Senegal called Fouladou, which borders Gambia and Guinea-Bissau and is home of diverse musical styles. From an early age, he pursued a love of music, both traditional and original. He sings in a variety of languages accompanied mostly by his own guitar.
Fatima Al Qadiri is a Brooklyn-based composer, musician, curator and artist. Born in Senegal, Al Qadiri's exposure to the rampant misappropriation of Western subculture while growing up in Kuwait is apparent in her highly virtuosic body of work. She has performed her symphonic and plaintive baroque electronic compositions at The Kitchen, Gallery 179 and Santos Party House and has regularly exhibited multimedia projects in New York City and Kuwait alongside fellow iconoclasts Khalid Al Gharaballi and Lauren Boyle.
Cheikh N'Digel Lô is a Senegalese musician. He was born in the town of Bobo Dioulasso in Burkina Faso. Lô began playing drums and singing at an early age. He joined Orchestre Volta Jazz, an ensemble which played Cuban and Congolese pop songs as well as traditional Burkina Faso music. Lô moved to Senegal in 1978, performing in several mbalax outfits. By 1985 Lô was playing guitar with numerous Côte d'Ivoire and French musicians, which lead him to record material in Paris in 1987.
Blonde Louis are a four piece guitar pop band, hailing from the first garden city, Hertfordshire. We are amongst other things double jointed, terrible pool players, grade 8 musicians, cousins, 1 part vegetarian/ 3 parts carnivore. Josh is the man with the golden tongue and all the sass. Harvey likes ice cream, lot’s of icceee creaaamm. Cox likes to to jibber jabber jabber...... Cherry likes the wine....... “red, white, both, alright.”
Daara J (Pronounced Daa-raa Jee, which means "The School" in the Wolof language) are a Senegalese rap trio, consisting of N’Dango D, Aladji Man and Faada Freddy. Their music blends western hiphop with traditional African rhythms to create a great infectionsly dancy style. In their last album, Boomrang, they were joined by guests including Rokia Traore, who is one of the leading women in Malian music.
Baaba Maal is a Senegalese singer and guitarist born in Podor, on the Senegal River. His father was a fieldhand and, as such, Baaba Maal was expected to become a fieldhand as well. However, Baaba Maal devoted himself to learning music from his mother and from his school's headmaster. He went on to study music at the university in Dakar before leaving for postgraduate studies on a scholarship at Beaux-Arts in Paris. He has become quite famous in Africa. He is the most internationally famous musician from Senegal, except perhaps Yossou N'Dour.
Laye Sow is a Fula, from Podor in the Futa Toro region of Northern Senegal, on the Mauritanian border. He was brought up on the African tradition of storytelling through song. He is often described a Muslim mystic. Laye is deeply spiritual, which you can easily hear in all his songs. However he is first and foremost an African, and the rights and wrongs of African society, as well as the weaknesses that create division, consume him.