Kandia Kouyate is in the running for the title of Mali's greatest living female singer, revered across West Africa. Still young, she is a legend in her time.
She also excels at the beautiful love songs for which Kita(her hometown - a historic town in the hills of western Mali) is famous. No...
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Kandia Kouyate is in the running for the title of Mali's greatest living female singer, revered across West Africa. Still young, she is a legend in her time.
She also excels at the beautiful love songs for which Kita(her hometown - a historic town in the hills of western Mali) is famous. No Malian singer, male or female, can equal her lyricism and expressiveness in these songs. A jelimuso (female griot), her voice is comparable in its fullness and intensity to that of the great gospel singers like Mahalia Jackson - and is unique in Mali, very different and much richer in texture than the nasal voices of most female griots. Her real forte is the more classical, historical praise song of the Mande.
In Mali, women singers are usually denied the right to perform these pieces. But Kandia, considered a mastersinger or "ngara" - a coveted title which few Malian singers manage to obtain - is the exception.
Kandia's beautiful voice is matched with a gift for poetic lyrics and a dynamic stage presence. At her concerts in Bamako, one often sees members of the audience literally rooted to the spot as she plunges into an improvisation, or swirls around a long sustained note. They say her singing makes them feel dizzy, as if drunk on her voice. This has earned her the epithet "la dangereuse".
The most striking and original aspect of her music when she first shot to fame in the early 80s was her arrangements. Before superstars Salif Keita or Mory Kante had released their groundbreaking albums "Soro" and "Akwaba Beach", it was Kandia who first began using the type of ethereal female chorus that has since become the trademark of Mande music. This was considered quite revolutionary within the more conservative musical circles of Mali's griots.
On her album "Kita Kan," Co-producer Ousmane Kouyaté makes an invaluable contribution with his own inimitable arrangements, not to mention some wonderfully mellow, bluesy guitar. Sékouba Bambino once again lends his golden voice for another duet, "Folilalou". And Kandia herself shows off her enormous versatility, equally at ease with the classical repertoire, alongside a string orchestra, shaking to a modern dance rhythm or singing to the reggae beat of Wassoullou ("Ayamafele").
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