Jali

Jali, a sensitive singer, songwriter, and guitarist whose stage name derives from the tallest peak near his Rwandan birthplace, merges sounds rooted in his African heritage with the classic chansons of his adopted Belgian home, yielding a distinctive acoustic folk-pop approach. Jean-Pierre Antouali came into the world in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, during 1988; as a child he relocated with his family to Brussels, where the songs of Jacques Brel and Georges Brassens, alongside the work of Tracy Chapman and Ben Harper, captured his imagination. Returning to his native country for two years beginning in 2005, he sought deeper insight into the culture and history of the nation’s difficult past—an experience that shaped both his chosen pseudonym and the songs he would write. Once signed to Barclay/Universal, he opened for the similarly globe-trotting troubadour Bernard Lavilliers across Europe and collaborated with producer Jean-Louis Pierot, known for his work with Renan Luce and Alain Bashung, on his first full-length record. That album, Des Jours et des Lunes, appeared in 2011 and included the Belgian airplay chart-topping single “Espanola” plus a composition inspired by Alejandro González Iñárritu’s film 21 Grams.