Eight Videos Of Oumou Sangaré (Mali vocalist)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This post showcases eight videos of Oumou Sangaré (Mali vocalist).
This post also includes biographical information about Oumou Sangaré as well as comments about most of these showcased songs.

The content of this post is presented for cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.

Any information about these songs would be appreciated.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to Oumou Sangaré for her musical legacy. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post, and thanks to the publishers of these videos on YouTube.

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INFORMATION ABOUT OUMOUO SANGARE
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oumou_Sangar%C3%A9
"Oumou Sangaré (born February 25, 1968 in Bamako, Mali) is a Grammy Award-winning Malian Wassoulou musician, sometimes referred to as "The Songbird of Wassoulou". Wassoulou is a historic region south of the Niger River, where the music descends from age old traditional and cultural songs, which is accompanied by a calabash. Sangaré's mother was the singer Aminata Diakité....

Sangaré recorded her first album, Moussoulou ("Women"), with Amadou Ba Guindo, a renowned maestro of Malian music. The album was very successful in Africa, with more than 200,000 copies sold.
With the help of Ali Farka Touré, Sangaré signed with the English label World Circuit. At the age of 21, she was already a star.
Oumou Sangaré is considered an ambassador of Wassoulou; her music has been inspired by the music and traditional dances of the region. She writes and composes her songs, which often include social criticism, especially concerning women's low status in society.

Many of Sangaré's songs concern love and marriage, especially freedom of choice in marriage. Her 1989 album Moussoulou was an unprecedented West African hit.

Sangaré is featured prominently in Throw Down Your Heart, a 2008 documentary about world-renowned American banjo player Béla Fleck, and his exploration of the relatively unknown relationship between his instrument and the musical traditions in Africa"...

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From http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106392478 "Oumou Sangare: Sonic And Political Muscle"
by Robert Christgau, July 08, 2009 2:07 PM ET
"With the death of Miriam Makeba, Mali's Oumou Sangare stands unchallenged as Africa's most important female singer. Sangare was singing for money at age 5 and supporting her family at 13. Now, after a 12-year absence during which she raised a son and ran a hotel, a farm and other businesses, she has released a new album called Seya.

No major African musician has been more outspoken about women's issues. Take the song "Wele Wele Wintou," which criticizes child marriage. The title phrase, which repeats many times during the frenetic five-minute track, means something like "ring the bells." In between "wele weles," Sangare warns fathers that girls shouldn't marry before they have breasts, which is when their life as women begins. For Malian women, Sangare is unquestionably an inspiration...

Sangare's will to marshal such forces is new. When she came up in the '90s, she was known for just slightly modernizing the rural music of the Malian south. Seya is far more varied and ambitious, utilizing more than 50 backup players. "Donso" is an allegorical song about hunting, but notice the violin intro; the hypnotic rhythm is traditional... Nowhere on the album is she more robust than in its finale. "Koroko" means entertainer, and on the song of the same name, some dozen Malian men and women help Sangare celebrate all the korokos who vitalized her impoverished nation before her."

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From http://www.nonesuch.com/albums/moussolou
"In 1989 Oumou Sangare, a young singer from the Wassoulou region of southern Mali, went into the JBZ studio in Abidjan to record her debut album. Except for electric guitar and bass, the line-up was traditional – kamalengoni or 5-string “youth’s harp”, karinyang (iron scraper) and violin (substituting the local one-string fiddle). The music they recorded on Moussolou (“Women”), was exactly the kind of music you might have heard 50 years ago in the forest of Wassoulou-- music performed by hunters to charm the wild animals and invoke the protecting spirits, but with updated lyrics reflecting the concerns of young women living in African cities today.

The music of Wassoulou, with its funky beat and strong melodies, had become increasingly popular in Mali over the previous few years. But no one could have foretold the wild success of Moussolou, which within a few months sold over two hundred thousand copies in West Africa alone – not counting bootlegs. This was Mali’s best selling cassette ever."...
=snip-
Oumou Sangaré sings in Bambara. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bambara_language indicates that "Bambara, also known as Bamana, and Bamanankan by speakers of the language, is a language spoken in Mali, and to a lesser extent Burkina Faso and Senegal."

According to http://www.behindthename.com/submit/names/usage/african/4 "Oumou" is a Bambara female name that means "latecomer".

That name may mean a child who is born to a woman who is older than most of the other child bearing women in that culture.

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FEATURED VIDEOS
These examples are presented in chronological order based on their posting dates on YouTube, with the oldest dated examples presented first.

Example #1: Mali: Oumou SANGARE - Bi Furu (Marriage Today)



Tyrus Maximus, Uploaded on Dec 6, 2008
. . Music from Mali
-snip-
Another translation [from Bambara to English] for this song is "Modern Marriage".

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Example #2: Oumou Sangare ~ Moussolou (Women) [sound file]



Groovemonzter Uploaded on Feb 15, 2009

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Example #3: Oumou Sangaré feat. Boddhi Satva - Ah Ndiyah (Boddhi Satva Ancestral Soul Mix)



Boddhi Satva, Published on Aug 23, 2009

Video Shooted in Mali by Ben Sangaré "Kourtrajmé Afrika"

Executive Producer: Oumou Sangaré

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Example #4: Oumou Sangare "Senkele"



Madakous, Uploaded on Sep 6, 2009

Oumou Sangare live at House of Worldcultures (Berlin/Germany) with "Senkele"

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Example #5: Oumou Sangaré, Wele Wele Wintou @ Afro-Pfingsten Festival 2011



Afro-Pfingsten Festival, Uploaded on Aug 23, 2011

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Example #6: Oumou Sangare - Donso (Hunters)



AfricaNet. Published on May 30, 2012
Clips Inédits de la Diva

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Example #7: Oumou Sangare - Koroko (Entertainers)



Africa Net Published on May 31, 2012
Clips Inedits de la diva

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Example #8: Oumou Sangare - Seya [Joy]



Africa Net Published on May 31, 2012
-snip-
From Billboard - Mar 7, 2009 - Google Books [Quoting Oumou Sangaré: "But all I've ever wanted to do is make country music.” The fact ... “When I sing, it's joyful, and 'Seya' means 'joy' [in Mali's Bambara language]”...


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