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Album review
Youssou N'Dour
Modern Africa & International Show-biz
Paris
25/02/2000 -
Youssou N'Dour appears to have been in the news non-stop lately following the release of his new 'international' album "Joko" From Village To Town (Small/Sony). Countless articles have been written about Youssou's shrewd business sense, his burgeoning cultural/financial empire in Senegal and his multiple plans for expansion. But somehow the media appears to have overlooked the fact that Youssou N'dour is first and foremost a supremely talented musician.
Youssou N'Dour appears to be constantly in the public eye these days - but then that's hardly surprising, the Senegalese star is not only young, rich and good-looking, he's also the hottest new businessman on Africa's cultural scene. Renowned for being ambitious but also constantly inventive, Youssou is not a man who goes in for resting on his laurels. And although he has tried to keep a relatively low profile, he is constantly in the public eye with one new business venture or another - whether it be his club "Le Thiossane" (renowned for programming some of Dakar's most exciting new talents), his art gallery, his communications group (which includes a daily newspaper, a radio station and a host of other on-going projects), his recording studio (Xippi), or his label (Jololi).
Even Youssou's loudest critics have been silenced by the success of the singer's burgeoning empire in Senegal. The world's favourite griot appears to have invested most of the profits from his best-selling albums in building an infrastructure designed to help up-and-coming talents on Africa's cultural scene. Youssou explains that the idea behind his projects is to prevent "future generations suffering from the same lack of infrastructure, the same void that I had to deal with in the early days of my career." Critics murmur that Youssou is shrewdly laying down foundations for a golden retirement, but whatever his motives no-one can deny that the singer has brought positive changes to Africa's cultural landscape.
There's certainly no denying Youssou's popularity in Africa and abroad - in fact, the Senegalese star is so popular in his homeland that he would make a prime candidate in a presidential election. Envied and adored on all sides, Youssou remains surprisingly modest and charming beneath his superstar veneer. The singer has never forgotten the alleys and backstreets of the Dakar medina where he grew up and is generous with praise for his professional entourage, his family and friends - without whom, he insists, he would never have got where he is today.
Six years after the release of his last international album "Wommat", Youssou has returned to the music news in style with a remarkable new album entitled "Joko". This musical epic recounts Africa's 'voyage into modernity' and the continent's determination to assume its place in today's global village. We met up with Youssou on a recent trip to France and asked him a few questions about his career and his new album.
Youssou, I feel there's a bit of a paradox at the heart of your work. On the one hand, you release a cassette album in West Africa every year which is obviously recorded with African music fans in mind. Then, every five or six years or so, you put out an album aimed at the international scene … Don't you run the risk of losing some of your authenticity by putting out these two very different albums?
Well, I think it's great to have the opportunity to do both. I've travelled the world and discovered other kinds of music, things I've got really interested in. And over the past few years I've managed to come up with melodies which can be enjoyed by music fans on both sides of the world. At the same time, through my family roots, I was also born a griot and it's good to be able to work within that tradition too. I'm lucky enough to have these different opportunities and I make full use of them all. You know, I'm equally capable of writing a song for FM radio here [in Paris] as I am of doing a song for FM back home in Senegal! Aren't you worried about having to walk this kind of tightrope all the time though- I mean, having to do one kind of thing to please one audience and something totally different to keep other fans happy? Don't you worry that you'll become too commercial if you try and please everybody all the time?
You know, people have this one particular image of African music in their head - but it's not the only one possible! Africa isn't just about forests, it's not just about exoticism. Africa's a modern country, after all. Just look at towns like Dakar, Kinshasa and Abidjan - they're all modern towns! And people who live there appreciate modern things too. I'm trying to show this other side of Africa and, let me assure you, it's a lot more original.
Anyway, even if I started singing in English, I'd always have my accent - I'd still have both languages going on at the same time and I think that's wonderful! Basically, I see myself as someone who's gone beyond the idea of pleasing or displeasing anyone. I can go into the studio and produce my albums all on my own. I'm able to do exactly what I want. And that's the kind of vibe I'm working in right now! The tracks on your international albums seem to be increasingly geared towards Western pop standards. In fact, your recent collaboration with people like Neneh Cherry and Wyclef from The Fugees have left more than one of your fans feeling a bit perplexed. Do you feel the need to work with other people to enrich your own music or are you influenced by the fact that there'll be a big commercial buzz around the project?
When you work with someone else it's never a one-way thing. You always end up bringing something to the other person and in the process you get something from him or her. That's the way it always works. I think the world needs this - particularly in the music sector! I definitely think mixes and musical cross-over are really exciting and people who work in the music business like myself have understood this. That's why we push things so far, even a little too far sometimes …
Everyone over here (in Europe) talks about Peter Gabriel and Youssou N'dour. But what I'm happy about is that after our collaboration Peter Gabriel's famous in Senegal. He can go anywhere he likes now in Africa and perform in concert. Peter's opened doors for me in the U.S., the U.K. and in France and now I've done the same for him too in Africa.
So tell us something about the new album - which, as we said earlier, is being released six years after your last international album "Wommat" (The Guide)? What kind of album is it?
It includes several songs, which came out in Senegal three years ago that have been specially reworked for this album. And there are a lot of new tracks too. The album's called "Joko" - Joko's a sort of link between the countryside and the town - which is exactly the route I've followed! It's where I've come from … and where I've ended up with the street thing, the urban thing and all that. It's also an album which talks about what's going on in society, about what my particular vision of the world is. It's about Senegal and Africa and, as I was saying earlier, there are two very different kinds of Africa - one that everyone knows and another side that people don't know much about at all. And it's this lesser-known side which is on the new album.
There's a lot of humour on "Joko" and a lot of movement too. Even when we were recording the album everything was going back and forth all the time. It's like when you listen to the album, you start off in Africa but you end up in New York! When we working on "This Dream" for instance - a song which features vocals by Peter Gabriel - everything started off in the studio in London. But then I took the tapes back to Dakar with me and added some stuff there. And then the tapes went off again, this time back to Peter's studio in Bath. And I think you can hear this movement in the song - well, I obviously hear it because I lived through it. But I hope other people listening to the album can hear it too. Are there a lot of collaborations on the new album?
Well, there's Wyclef from The Fugees. Wyclef ended up working on three tracks - he recorded a duet with me and he also remixed a song and produced another track. Then there's Peter Gabriel and Sting, who both came into the studio to sing with me. Then there's Johnny $ who produced "7 Seconds" and Pierre Bianchi who produced "La Cour des Grands"… So the new album is more international than ever?
Yes, absolutely. Seeing as I have this possibility, I'm going to make full use of it. Why shouldn't an African musician do stuff which sounds international? I mean, people can stick me in whatever pigeon-hole they like, but they've got to give me a bit of room to breathe!
Youssou, I feel there's a bit of a paradox at the heart of your work. On the one hand, you release a cassette album in West Africa every year which is obviously recorded with African music fans in mind. Then, every five or six years or so, you put out an album aimed at the international scene … Don't you run the risk of losing some of your authenticity by putting out these two very different albums?
Well, I think it's great to have the opportunity to do both. I've travelled the world and discovered other kinds of music, things I've got really interested in. And over the past few years I've managed to come up with melodies which can be enjoyed by music fans on both sides of the world. At the same time, through my family roots, I was also born a griot and it's good to be able to work within that tradition too. I'm lucky enough to have these different opportunities and I make full use of them all. You know, I'm equally capable of writing a song for FM radio here [in Paris] as I am of doing a song for FM back home in Senegal! Aren't you worried about having to walk this kind of tightrope all the time though- I mean, having to do one kind of thing to please one audience and something totally different to keep other fans happy? Don't you worry that you'll become too commercial if you try and please everybody all the time?
You know, people have this one particular image of African music in their head - but it's not the only one possible! Africa isn't just about forests, it's not just about exoticism. Africa's a modern country, after all. Just look at towns like Dakar, Kinshasa and Abidjan - they're all modern towns! And people who live there appreciate modern things too. I'm trying to show this other side of Africa and, let me assure you, it's a lot more original.
Anyway, even if I started singing in English, I'd always have my accent - I'd still have both languages going on at the same time and I think that's wonderful! Basically, I see myself as someone who's gone beyond the idea of pleasing or displeasing anyone. I can go into the studio and produce my albums all on my own. I'm able to do exactly what I want. And that's the kind of vibe I'm working in right now! The tracks on your international albums seem to be increasingly geared towards Western pop standards. In fact, your recent collaboration with people like Neneh Cherry and Wyclef from The Fugees have left more than one of your fans feeling a bit perplexed. Do you feel the need to work with other people to enrich your own music or are you influenced by the fact that there'll be a big commercial buzz around the project?
When you work with someone else it's never a one-way thing. You always end up bringing something to the other person and in the process you get something from him or her. That's the way it always works. I think the world needs this - particularly in the music sector! I definitely think mixes and musical cross-over are really exciting and people who work in the music business like myself have understood this. That's why we push things so far, even a little too far sometimes …
Everyone over here (in Europe) talks about Peter Gabriel and Youssou N'dour. But what I'm happy about is that after our collaboration Peter Gabriel's famous in Senegal. He can go anywhere he likes now in Africa and perform in concert. Peter's opened doors for me in the U.S., the U.K. and in France and now I've done the same for him too in Africa.
So tell us something about the new album - which, as we said earlier, is being released six years after your last international album "Wommat" (The Guide)? What kind of album is it?
It includes several songs, which came out in Senegal three years ago that have been specially reworked for this album. And there are a lot of new tracks too. The album's called "Joko" - Joko's a sort of link between the countryside and the town - which is exactly the route I've followed! It's where I've come from … and where I've ended up with the street thing, the urban thing and all that. It's also an album which talks about what's going on in society, about what my particular vision of the world is. It's about Senegal and Africa and, as I was saying earlier, there are two very different kinds of Africa - one that everyone knows and another side that people don't know much about at all. And it's this lesser-known side which is on the new album.
There's a lot of humour on "Joko" and a lot of movement too. Even when we were recording the album everything was going back and forth all the time. It's like when you listen to the album, you start off in Africa but you end up in New York! When we working on "This Dream" for instance - a song which features vocals by Peter Gabriel - everything started off in the studio in London. But then I took the tapes back to Dakar with me and added some stuff there. And then the tapes went off again, this time back to Peter's studio in Bath. And I think you can hear this movement in the song - well, I obviously hear it because I lived through it. But I hope other people listening to the album can hear it too. Are there a lot of collaborations on the new album?
Well, there's Wyclef from The Fugees. Wyclef ended up working on three tracks - he recorded a duet with me and he also remixed a song and produced another track. Then there's Peter Gabriel and Sting, who both came into the studio to sing with me. Then there's Johnny $ who produced "7 Seconds" and Pierre Bianchi who produced "La Cour des Grands"… So the new album is more international than ever?
Yes, absolutely. Seeing as I have this possibility, I'm going to make full use of it. Why shouldn't an African musician do stuff which sounds international? I mean, people can stick me in whatever pigeon-hole they like, but they've got to give me a bit of room to breathe!
OK, but you have to admit it's not easy playing in Dakar one minute, then turning round and trying to conquer the international record market the next …
Sure, but that's exactly what I'm doing - and it works!
Soeuf Elbadawi
Translation : Julie Street
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