Mali Entertainment People

Xalam, also spelled khalam, is the Wolof name for a traditional stringed musical instrument from West Africa. The xalam is thought to have originated from modern-day Mali, but some believe that, in antiquity, the instrument may have originated from ancient...

Lobi Traoré is a Malian musician. He was born in 1961 in the village of Bakaridianna, on the Niger River close to Ségou. His singing has been described in The Economist as "flat, strangely penetrating tone, somewhere between rap and...

Afel Bocoum (born 1955) is a musician from Mali, noted as a singer and guitarist. He began his career as a member of Ali Farka Toure's group ASCO, and Toure is often regarded as his mentor. Both men come from...

Oumou Sangare (born February 25, 1968, in Bamako, Mali) is a Malian Wassoulou musician, sometimes referred to as "The Songbird of Wassoulou." Wassoulou is a historic region south of the Niger River, and the music there is descended from traditional...

Amadou & Mariam are a musical duo from Mali, composed of the couple Amadou Bagayoko (guitar and vocals) (born in Bamako 24 October 1954) and Mariam Doumbia (vocals) (born in Mali's capital Bamako 15 April 1958). The pair, known as...

Rokia Traoré (born January 24, 1974) is a Victoires de la Musique award-winning Malian singer, songwriter and guitarist. Born in Mali as a member of the Bambara ethnic group, her father was a diplomat and she travelled widely in her...

Kandia Kouyaté (also known as Kandja Kouyaté, born in 1959(?) in Kita, Mali) is a Malian jelimuso (a female griot) and kora player; she has earned the prestigious title of ngara, and is sometimes appellated La dangereuse and La grande...

Toumani Diabaté (born August 10, 1965) is a Malian kora player who has gained international acclaim for his music. He is a versatile performer, being equally at home with the traditional music of Mali as well as with cross-cultural collaborations...

Boubacar Traoré (born 1942 in Kayes, Mali) is a renowned singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Traoré also goes by the nickname Kar Kar, "the one who dribbles too much" in Bambara, a reference to his soccer playing: "a nickname I got...

Mory Kanté (born March 29, 1950 in Kissidougou, Guinea) is an acclaimed vocalist and player of the kora harp. He was born into one of Guinea's best known families of griot (hereditary) musicians. After being brought up in the Mandinka...