Forced to remain isolated during the long weeks of generalized confinement, the Malian singer Oumou Sangaré took advantage of this forced break to recharge her batteries, reflect on her destiny, the evolution of the world and envisage an album, steeped in blues sensitivity, that its American resort has magnified. It was in Baltimore, Maryland, that was designed Timbuktu. The eleven new compositions reveal an artist more authentic than ever. She delivers herself with sincerity and sparkles with a thousand lights. The queen of vocal art manages, once again, to seduce us, to charm us, to bewitch us…
Afro-planetary icon, Oumou Sangaré can legitimately claim her place in The Epic of Black Music. Step by step, she won public recognition and her civic commitments reinforced her image as a woman of integrity and incorruptibility. Her convictions take her beyond a life as an artist. She knows that her voice is a powerful vector of expression that allows her to give impetus to her militant action. Already a goodwill ambassador for the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), she wants to go even further and encourage our examination of conscience. Each of his songs must have a meaning and open the minds of his many admirers.
In the album Timbuktu, social and humanist considerations illuminate our 21st century. Observer of international tumults, Oumou Sangaré does not want to remain a mere spectator. She wants to act, especially when her native country, Mali, is going through strong tensions that a perilous major political change cannot avoid. She knows that speaking up requires mastery and responsibility. So she chooses her words and makes her message universal. Kèlè Magni is certainly the most sadly topical title. He denounces the war and its ravages. It manifests the exasperation of a woman of heart confronted with the absurdity of a world too often cruel and unbalanced.
To support her indignation and her hopes, Oumou Sangaré relied on the talents of her friend Mamadou Sidibé, virtuoso of the Kamélé N’Goni, whom she invited to Baltimore to design the architecture of this essential record. She also called upon the guitaristic ornamentation of Pascal Danaë, leader of the Delgrès group, who became the album’s mastermind alongside Nicolas Quéré. Oumou Sangaré has always known how to surround herself and the time for reflection that the Covid-19 pandemic indirectly offered her was a godsend. Without haste, Timbuktu imposed itself and reveals today with force the benevolent personality of a pure soul attached to its roots and always so combative!
See you on May 15, 2022 at La Cigale in Paris to accompany, with your cheers, the next positions taken by a convinced activist…
► The website ofOumou Sangare.