Chronic

Sidiki Diabaté on the road to the summits

At 27, the Malian Sidiki Diabaté publishes the mini-album "Beni". © Universal Music Africa & DMusic

08/07/2019

To consolidate its popularity rating that has soared in recent years in West Africa, Sidiki Diabaté offers a mini-album entitled Beni also marks a new stage in the development of his career.

The information had not made much noise, or at least had not received the attention that should have been given to him: last December, Sidiki Diabaté and his father Toumani , grandmaster of the kora, joined the structure Universal Music Africa, a branch of Universal Music Group, has become a must in urban music on the continent.

If the changes of record companies are not lacking in an obedient market like the others to the law of supply and demand, this one undeniably had a particular meaning. All in all, the alliance between these major players announced a new stage in the career of the one who is a star among the younger generation in West Africa.

Until then, he had been working on a label run by one of his compatriots - with which the reports had seriously deteriorated to the point that Moussa Wagué, Keyzit's boss, came to settle his accounts in a press release with Diabaté's father and son and lodge a complaint against them before ending up in jail for a few days.

Now supported by a partner whose firepower is more in line with its status, Sidiki has the means of its ambitions. The trophies he has accumulated in recent years have not blasé the recent winner of the Mali Awards, voted Best Contemporary Male Artist of the Year, who ranked his statuette alongside the platinum disc awarded for his participation in Lamomali the French Matthieu Chédid .

Egotrip

Man likes to occupy the field, on social networks, but also in music, this language that he speaks as naturally as he breathes. While waiting for the album that will succeed Diabateba Music Volume 1 released in 2016, here he is back under his own name with a mini-album of seven songs called Beni , in reference to his success. "I am blessed, the blessed child of Mali" , he assures right away, yielding to an ego trip that a priori fits badly with what we imagine a griot, but recalls its links with the world of rap, and in particular the French Booba who invited him on stage in front of 20,000 people at the AccorHotels Arena in Paris in 2015.

The text also serves as a focus, to counter the attacks of those who see him as an heir whose rise has been facilitated by 71 generations of musicians before him in the family: "I was given a lot of blows, I was thrown a lot of traps, I was thrown a lot of arrows [...] The blessing can not be bought, it deserves " , he wants to clarify in French, to be well understood.

The 27-year-old singer-songwriter has also focused on four titles for a very popular beatmaker : the Ivorian Akatché, who has worked in recent years with Cape Verdean Mayra Andrade, Guineans Banlieuz'art, Soul Bang's , Senegalese Viviane Chédid and Ivorian Tiken Jah Fakoly, whose latest album Le Monde is hot .

Urban music

At the microphone, Sidiki invites two figures of urban music from French-speaking Africa. In the role of the veteran, 41-year-old Fally Ipupa, representative of contemporary Congolese rumba very popular on the African continent. Their collaboration on Do not leave me is not a real surprise, since it had leaked in December 2017 through videos uploaded. In the role of rising value, the Ivorian Safarel Obiang, who embodies the replacement of the offbeat coupe and dance Ivory Coast with his troop of Russian soldiers in recent years. Their duet on BKO-ABJ (for Bamako-Abidjan) symbolizes the links between the two peoples, beyond the two capitals.

The Prince of the kora, as we call him Malian, also takes advantage of this piece to show his agility on his fetish instrument that he likes to present as "the identity card of music of West Africa" . An overview, to complete the panoramic vision of the know-how of the interested, cleverly declined in watermark throughout the 27 minutes of this project that manages to reconcile strategic objectives and artistic value.

Sidiki Diabaté Beni (Universal Africa) 2019
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By: Bertrand Lavaine

Sidiki Diabate

album - African Music - Mali

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