A few months back, I was privileged to see the blind music duo, Amadou et Mariam in concert in their native Bamako. It was, I must say, an entertaining, energetic and uplifting evening.

Now, I have to say that, compared to other Malian musicians, such as Toumani Diabaté, Bassekou Kouyaté or Ali Farka Toure, I didn’t find them as technically impressive or indeed as authentically ‘ethnic’ in their sound. Nevertheless, these are two very charismatic musicians who know how to keep their audience enthused!

They sing some great songs, including the famous “Beaux Dimanches”, “Senegal Fast Food” and “Taxi Bamako”.
Their latest album is called “Welcome to Mali”. Click here to see them performing the title song at the Fifa World Cup opening ceremony. They’ve also met Barack Obama, Stevie Wonder and have performed with Manu Chao and many others.

Other links:

Here’s their MySpace page – full of lots of treats!
Click here for their official website.
Here are their albums for sale on Amazon.
And here’s some more info about them on Wikipedia.