Youssou N’Dour

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Simply dubbed “the West African Sinatra” by New York Newsday the Senegalese singer, Youssou N’Dour, is perhaps the most exciting and universally appealing musician to take the world music stage since Bob Marley. With a voice as boundless and clear as ether, N’Dour creates an enthralling virtuosic fusion of Western and African sounds. He has collaborated with numerous pop musicians including Paul Simon on Graceland, Peter Gabriel on the classic duet “In Your Eyes” (from the album SO), and with singer Neneh Cherry.

Mbalax is a modern Senegalese popular music that has been made famous throughout the world thanks to N’Dour’s twenty plus years of recording and touring outside of Senegal with his band, The Super Etoile. He absorbs the entire Senegalese musical spectrum in his work by filtering through the lenses of genre-defining rock and pop music from outside the Senegalese culture.

He won his first Grammy Award for best contemporary world music album for his CD Egypt in 2005. Throughout his astonishing international career, N’Dour’s roots in Senegalese dance music and singing remains the hallmark of his artistic personality. N’Dour maintains a sound that is highly personal and innovative, a synthesis of musical language and culture. On the foundation of this personal sound, Youssou N’Dour remains a cultural icon in his country and in the worldwide Senegalese Diaspora. Youssou was ranked one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2007.