In the early 1980s, Senegalese singer Youssou N’dour performed at the Africa Centre in London as part of a club night called the Limpopo Club.
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In the early 1980s, Senegalese singer Youssou N’dour performed at the Africa Centre in London as part of a club night called the Limpopo Club. It was the first time mbalax, the dance music popular in the Senegambia, had been heard in London and I like so many intrigued rushed off to buy his Immigres album released in 1984 on the UK Earthworks label.
The album and his European concerts put N’Dour on the international map. He went on to tour internationally (I saw him several times in Tokyo in the 1980s as he popularised mbalax. N’Dour went on to collaborate with many musicians, including a hit single he had with Neneh Cherry in 1994 called 7 Seconds).
Mbalax is often called an urban dance music based on the sabar drumming of Senegal’s largest ethnic group, Wolof, along with soce and serer music and rhythms. The tama (talking drum) also features along with Afro-jazz, US…