Youssou N'Dour in NYC

African America

20/04/1999 - 

"Wow Wow!!".
To hear 38-year old Senegalese and world music superstar Youssou N'Dour say it, it rolls off his tongue like a southern belle says "Y'all," and pretty much sums up all that is good in this troubled world. When I first heard him say it last Saturday night at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom I thought he was speaking in Wolof, his native language. Much of the stage banter, and most of the crowd was speaking in Wolof or some other African dialect. Everyone I spoke to either waiting in line to get in or in the crowd during the show was from Senegal and had grown up listening to Mr. N'Dour. I asked a couple of younger men who had grown up in Senegal and had been living here for two years what he meant by, "wow wow!" They told me, in broken English, it meant, "you know...like, wow." I knew that it was a good thing.

The band took the stage at about 11:30pm. Having never seen Mr. N'Dour perform before we didn't realize that he doesn't come out right away and that his backup singer, Ouzin Ndiaye was up front on the microphone. After 30 minutes the band left the stage and then a beautiful young African woman came out in traditional dress and announced that this was going to be a very special event. For tonight was going to be a Great African Ball and Youssou N'Dour wasn't going to treat this just like any show during a concert tour but this was going to be special for all his fans who now call New York home. He was going to treat this like a typical night at Thiossane, his now famous club in Dakar and home of Mblax music. Mr. N'Dour it seems, is now the patron saint of this infectious mix of traditional Senegalese percussion music with Afro-Cuban and more Western dance music. He certainly has my vote.

Just after midnight the band came back out and started playing as Youssou N'Dour came onstage wearing a long white African boubou. The crowd up front seemed to double and everyone started dancing. His huge smile lit up the room and his beautiful reedy voice felt like velvet to me. After what seemed like a couple of minutes but really was 1:30, the band left again and the young woman came back out and announced there was going to be a special guest. When the band came back again, Mr. N'Dour was now wearing a sharp two-piece suit. His female backup singer, Viviane Chidid joined him up front for "7 Seconds," his 1994 big hit with Neneh Cherry. A song I remember liking but not knowing he co-wrote it with Ms. Cherry.
After halfway though the song, Stevie Wonder is assisted onstage playing the harmonica. I am a huge Stevie Wonder fan and this was really exciting for me. He did a short, but great scat improvisation with Mr. N'Dour and then left. My photographer almost walked right into Mr. Wonder later on when we finally did go to the back of the room.

At about 3:00 the band was still cooking and the crowd was still dancing. At the beginning of the show there were 12 performers onstage, now there were about 20. The extra people being dancers and percussionists who joined the band for the last half-hour. I can't remember the last time I saw a band look like they really wanted to be there as much as Mr. N'Dour and the Super Etoile De Dakar. The rest of the crowd and myself didn't want to be anywhere else. Wow wow!!

Bop Tweedie
Photos : Eric Iannucci