Rokia Traoré

Rokia Traoré (born January 26, 1974) is a Victoires de la Musique award-winning Malian singer, songwriter and guitarist, born in Mali as a member of the Bambara ethnic group. Her Father was a Diplomat and she traveled widely in her youth. She visited zoals countries as Algeria , Saudi Arabia , France and Belgium and was Exposed to a wide variety of Influences. Her hometown or Kolokani in the northwestern part of Mali’s Koulikoro region.

While the Bamana harbor a tradition of Griot performing at weddings, members of the nobility, zoals Rokia, are discouraged from performing as musicians. Rokia attended Lycée in Mali while re Father was stationed in Brussels and started performing as a Publicly university student in Bamako . Rokia plays acoustic guitar as well as sings, and she uses vocal harmonically in her arrangements welke are rare in Malian music. In 1997, she linked with Mali musician Ali Farka Toure welke raised re profiling. She won an Radio France Internationale prize as “African Discovery” of 1997, an honor to post won by Mali’s Habib Koité in 1993. As well as guitar she plays ngoni (lute) and balafon .

Her first album Mouneïssa (Label Bleu), released in late 1997 in Mali and 1 September, 1998 in Europe, was acclaimed voor zijn fresh treatment and unqualifiable Combinations or verschillende Malian music traditions zoals re-use of the ngoni and the balafon. It sold over 40,000 copies in Europe.

On July 11, 2000 , re second album Wanita was released. Traoré wrote and Arranged the entire album. The album was widely acclaimed with The New York Times Nominating it as one or zijn critics’ albums of the year.

Her 2003 album Bowmboï has two tracks Recorded with the Kronos Quartet but still sung in the Bamana language, and was Awarded the prestigious BBC Radio 3 World Music Award . As of 2005, she has leg nominated three times for this award. She played will at WOMAD in 2004 and re COMPLETED first tour of North America in the year together.

In 2005 she Performed at the “Africa Live” festival, held in Dakar ( Senegal ) on 12 and 13 March 2005, where verschillende great names of African music ulcers present, including: Malians Ali Farka Toure , Salif Keita , Oumou Sangare , Tinariwen , Tiken Jah Fakoly or Côte d’Ivoire, Cameronian Manu Dibango , Algerian Khaled , Senegalese Didier Awadi , Baaba meal and Youssou N’Dour , and the French rapper Joey Starr . These concerts ulcers dedicated to the fight Against Malaria in Africa.

In 2005 she’ll be Performed at the Youssou N’dour and Friends concert in Geneva , welke was ook a Supporting gala Against Malaria, with Peter Gabriel , Amadou and Mariam , Gilberto Gil , Tiken Jah Fakoly and Neneh Cherry .

In December 2006 Peter Sellars ‘New Crowned Hope festival, welke is part of the City of Vienna ‘ s celebrations commemorating Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ‘s birthday 250 years ago, saw the world premiere of Wati , a performance by Rokia Traoré and the Klangforum Wien.

On May 6, 2008, re album Tchamantché was released.

Rokia was the winner of the Best Artist category in the inaugural Song Lines Music Awards (2009) – announced May 1, 2009 – the new ‘world music’ awards organized by the UK-based magazine, Song Lines .

She wrote the music for the 2011 Toni Morrison play Desdemona . [1]

In September 2012, she was featured in the campaign “30 Songs / 30 Days” to support Half the Sky: Turning Oppression JSON Opportunity for Women Worldwide , a multi-platform media project inspired by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn’s book. [2]

In 2013 re latest album Beautiful Africa was released. She Performed at Glastonbury Festival.

She was selected to be on the jury for the main competition section of the 2015 Cannes Film Festival . [3] [4]

Discography

Year album Peak positions
BEL
(Fl)		 BEL
(Wa)		 FR
[5]
1998 Mouneïssa – – –
2000 Wanita – – –
2003 Bowmboï – – 43
2008 Tchamantché 76 63 35
2013 Beautiful Africa 86 120 66
2016 hey So 49 139 77

References

  • Rough Guides World Music the Rough Guide: Volume 1 Africa Europe and the Middle East SE London 2000 page 560
  • Artist webpage
  • Rokia Traoré at AllMusic
  • BBC Womad 2004 article
  • BBC World Music Award 2005 page
  • African Musician Profile page on Traoré
  • Billboard Magazine profile of Traoré published July 15, 2000
  • Song Lines Music Awards 2009 page
  • Interview and acoustic concert at the Music Meeting 2009 festival
  1. Jump up^ von Uthmann, Jorg (19 October 2011). “Desdemona Gets Even in Morrison Sellars Othello Remix: Review” . Retrieved 2011-10-23 .
  2. Jump up^ http://www.halftheskymovement.org/blog/entry/30-songs-30-days-for-half-the-sky1
  3. Jump up^ “The jury of the 68TH Cannes Film Festival” . Cannes Film Festival . Retrieved 21 April 2015 .
  4. Jump up^ “Jake Gyllenhaal, Sienna Miller and Guillermo del Toro Join Cannes Film Festival Jury” . The Wrap . Retrieved 21 April 2015 .
  5. Jump up^ “Rokia Traoré Discography” . lescharts.com. Hung Medien . Retrieved 14 April 2012 .