Biography
Les Amazones d'Afrique operates as an all-female supergroup formed by West African activist musicians who promote gender equality while creating music that has earned international acclaim. Its roster features Malian griot Kandia Kouyaté, Rokia Koné called "The Rose of Bamako," Mariam Doumbia from the Afro-pop outfit Amadou & Mariam, Mamani Keita who recorded the duo album Electro Bamako with Marc Minelli, Inna Modja, Beninese activist and pop singer Angélique Kidjo, UNICEF ambassador and Nigerian singer Nneka, Mariam Koné who works as chorister for Cheick Tidiane Seck, and Mouneïssa Tandina who has backed the Rail Band, Salif Keita, Oumou Sangaré, and many others.
The 2017 debut album République Amazone illustrates how this multi-generational undertaking blends modern and traditional West African sounds within a sustained musical campaign against female disenfranchisement. They captured Amazones Power during 2019. After resuming live performances in late 2022, Les Amazones d'Afrique issued Musow Danse in 2024.
Their opening concert took place at Fiesta des Suds in Marseilles in October 2015. The enthusiastic reaction prompted a signing to Real World Records. February 2017 brought their debut single and video "I Play the Kora." Their sound defied the catch-all category "world music." The track's lyric functions as metaphor. Because women had been barred for centuries from playing the kora, the harp-like instrument native to West Africa, its empowerment message delivers both a call to unity and a call to arms.
Issued in April 2017 and produced by Liam Farrell, aka Doctor L who has composed and produced for Mbongwana Star, Tony Allen, Assassin, and others, the album République Amazone reached the top spot on the AfroBase Radio Chart. After the follow-up single "Dame et Ses Valises," it entered the World Albums chart at number six in early 2018. Following a world tour, the three principals Sangare, Doumbia, and Keïta began composing new songs together and apart. These addressed misogyny and violence, sexual identity, forced marriage, and female genital mutilation with greater force. Their 2020 follow-up Amazones Power delivered richly melodic pieces in pan-African traditional and modern styles set for collaborative harmonies. These were layered over gritty contemporary pop and the Congotronics-style production of Doctor L (Farrell), who mixed and mastered the record in Dakar and Paris.
The COVID-19 pandemic halted touring and sent members toward separate careers. Rehearsals restarted in late 2021, and they returned to the road in 2022 and early 2023 while presenting a range of new and previously unreleased material. In February 2024 Real World released the 12-track Musow Danse, their first collaboration with producer Jacknife Lee, who brought their electronic experiments to the forefront of the pan-African aesthetic.
The 2017 debut album République Amazone illustrates how this multi-generational undertaking blends modern and traditional West African sounds within a sustained musical campaign against female disenfranchisement. They captured Amazones Power during 2019. After resuming live performances in late 2022, Les Amazones d'Afrique issued Musow Danse in 2024.
Their opening concert took place at Fiesta des Suds in Marseilles in October 2015. The enthusiastic reaction prompted a signing to Real World Records. February 2017 brought their debut single and video "I Play the Kora." Their sound defied the catch-all category "world music." The track's lyric functions as metaphor. Because women had been barred for centuries from playing the kora, the harp-like instrument native to West Africa, its empowerment message delivers both a call to unity and a call to arms.
Issued in April 2017 and produced by Liam Farrell, aka Doctor L who has composed and produced for Mbongwana Star, Tony Allen, Assassin, and others, the album République Amazone reached the top spot on the AfroBase Radio Chart. After the follow-up single "Dame et Ses Valises," it entered the World Albums chart at number six in early 2018. Following a world tour, the three principals Sangare, Doumbia, and Keïta began composing new songs together and apart. These addressed misogyny and violence, sexual identity, forced marriage, and female genital mutilation with greater force. Their 2020 follow-up Amazones Power delivered richly melodic pieces in pan-African traditional and modern styles set for collaborative harmonies. These were layered over gritty contemporary pop and the Congotronics-style production of Doctor L (Farrell), who mixed and mastered the record in Dakar and Paris.
The COVID-19 pandemic halted touring and sent members toward separate careers. Rehearsals restarted in late 2021, and they returned to the road in 2022 and early 2023 while presenting a range of new and previously unreleased material. In February 2024 Real World released the 12-track Musow Danse, their first collaboration with producer Jacknife Lee, who brought their electronic experiments to the forefront of the pan-African aesthetic.
Albums
Singles
