Les Nubians

Emerging from Bordeaux during the 1990s, the distinctive sister duo Les Nubians cultivated a refined, jazz-inflected strain of R&B that wove French-language verses together with echoes of Sade, Soul II Soul, hip-hop rhythms, and African pop currents. Helene and Celia Faussart, daughters of a French father and a Cameroonian mother, entered the world in France before the family relocated to Chad in 1985; at that time Helene, born in 1975, was ten, while Celia, born in 1979, was six. The pair remained in Chad for seven years, returning to France as adolescents. Having sung throughout childhood, they initially launched Les Nubians as an a cappella ensemble devoted to renditions of R&B, reggae, and African repertoire, later expanding to full-band arrangements and self-penned material. Their listening habits encompassed a broad spectrum, and they have voiced particular regard for Ella Fitzgerald and Abbey Lincoln alongside the Fugees and African luminaries Miriam Makeba and Fela Kuti. Virgin introduced their debut album, Princesses Nubiennes, across France, Switzerland, and Belgium in June 1998, with Omtown/Higher Octave bringing it to American shores that September; the set became the most commercially successful French-language album released in the United States in more than ten years. The sisters also appeared on recordings by Talib Kweli and Black Eyed Peas and contributed to the Red Hot Organization’s Fela Kuti tribute, Red, Hot & Riot. Work on their follow-up album took them through Jamaica, Cameroon, London, and Paris, where they enlisted underground rapper Talib Kweli, fellow Cameroonian Manu Dibango, pianist Ray Lema, and broken-beat pioneer IG Culture. Higher Octave issued the resulting One Step Forward in March 2003. In 2004 they supplied the track “Going All the Way,” featuring reggae star Beres Hammond, to UNITY: The Official Athens 2004 Olympic Games album. The following year Les Nubians released Nubians Present Echoes, Chapter One, an anthology of spoken-word contributions from poets and hip-hop artists spanning the United States, France, and Africa. They revisited “With or Without You” for the 2008 compilation In the Name of Love: Africa Celebrates U2. After an extended hiatus the duo returned to the studio in 2010, unveiling the EP Nü Revolution Nubiatic late that year and the full-length Nü Revolution in spring 2011.