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Biography of Youssou N'Dour
Name: Youssou N'Dour
Birth Date: October 1, 1959
Death Date: N/A
Place of Birth: Dakar, Senegal
Nationality: Senegalese
Gender: Male
Occupations: singer, songwriter, bandleader
Youssou N'Dour
Senegalese singer, songwriter, and bandleader Youssou N'Dour (born 1959) is a leading proponent of World Music, combining traditional music from his homeland with Western popular culture, Cuban rhythms, and contemporary instrumentation.N'Dour is among the most popular practitioners of a Senegalese form of music called mbalax, which features the heavy rhythms normally associated with the indigenous mbung mbung drum, kora harp, and balafon xylophone instead being performed by electric guitars and keyboards. Mbalax also employs the traditional Senegalese vocal methods of tassou and bakou; which, respectively, resemble Western rap and rhythm-and-blues vocal techniques. N'Dour helped pioneer mbalax in the 1970s with tremendous success in his homeland and brought the music to international popularity in the 1980s when he toured Europe and the United States as a solo performer and with such Western musical artists as Peter Gabriel, Paul Simon, Sting, and Bruce Springsteen. His efforts to introduce mbalax music to international …showed first 150 words…
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…showed last 150 words…introduce American hip-hop elements to N'Dour's mbalax. "I try to bring things out in the modern way and in the urban way and musically I create a lot of connections," N'Dour said. Further Reading Broughton, Simon, Mark Ellingham, and Richard Trillo, editors, The Rough Guide: World Music, Volume I: Africa, Europe and the Middle East, Rough Guides Ltd, 1999.Romanowski, Patricia and Holly George-Warren, editors, The New Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll, Rolling Stone Press, 1995.Cho, John, "Senegal: Baobabs, Boubous, and Mbalax," Roots World, 1996, http://www.rootsworld.com/rw/feature/cho_mbalax.html.McLane, Daisann, "Youssou N'Dour Eyes Open," Rolling Stone, No. 638, http://www.rollingstone.com/recordings/."Youssou N'Dour," African Music Encyclopedia, http://www.africanmusic.org/artists/youssou.html."Youssou N'Dour," Leigh Bailey Artists of Woodstock, http://www.woodstock.com/html/biow0045."Youssou N'Dour: Africa's Music Missionary," BBC Homepage, May 24, 2000, http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/africa/newsid_761000/761088.stm.
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