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Fatoumata Diawara

Introducing a fresh new talent with a unique sound, a bagful of beautiful self-penned songs and a tumultuous life story behind her, Fatoumata Diawara’s debut EP ‘Kanou’, was recently released on World Circuit on May 9 2011.

Tall, superbly poised and elegant, with an iridescent smile, this sometime star of African film draws elements of jazz and funk into an exquisitely sparse contemporary folk sound refracting the rocking rhythms and plaintive melodies of her ancestral Wassoulou tradition through an instinctive pop sensibility. At the centre of the music is Fatou’s warm, affecting voice, spare, rhythmical guitar playing and gorgeously melodic songs that draw powerfully on her own often troubled experience.

Born in Cote d’Ivoire, raised in Mali, now based in Paris, and still only 29, Fatou has had a life covering a whole gamut of contemporary African experience: fighting parental opposition to her artistic ambitions and the cultural prejudice faced by women throughout Africa, winning success as an actress in film and theatre, before finding her feet in the medium she was always destined to make her own: music.

Fatou’s EP will be followed by her full length album ‘Fatou’, released 19 September 2011. Source: World Circuit

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In Pictures

Ancient To The Future: Fatoumata Diawara At Carnegie Hall

Read "Ancient To The Future: Fatoumata Diawara At Carnegie Hall" reviewed by Dave Kaufman


Fatoumata Diawara was a featured performer at the Journey into Afrofuturism Festival, organized by Carnegie Hall on Friday, March 4. It is a (NY) city-wide festival “where music, visual arts, science fiction, and technology intersect to imagine alternate realities and a liberated future viewed through the lens of Black cultures." Chimurenga Renaissance, a Zimbabwean-centered hip-hop collective, kicked off a great evening of music at a sold-out Zankel Hall, the second of Carnegie Hall's three-concert venues with a seating capacity of ...

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Live Review

Fatoumata Diawara at Nourse Theater

Read "Fatoumata Diawara at Nourse Theater" reviewed by Harry S. Pariser


Fatoumata Diawara Nourse Theater Mali Fest San Francisco, CA April 18, 2014 A buzz was in the air among those assembled at San Francisco's Nourse Theater for the first night of Mali Fest, a set of two concerts which featured two distinct acts. This initial evening headlined the multitalented singer, songwriter, musician and actress Fatoumata Diawara. Born in the Ivory Coast but raised in Mali (where her family belongs to the royal caste), Diawara ...

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Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Kanou

World Circuit
2011

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