Rokia Traoré

About Rokia Traoré

Rokia Traoré is an award-winning Malian singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Rokia was born in Mali as a member of the Bamana ethnic group. As her father was a diplomat, she traveled widely in her youth and as a result of this travel she was exposed to a wide variety of influences. While the Bamana have a tradition of griot performing at weddings, members of the nobility such as Rokia are discourage… Read more »

Rokia Traoré is an award-winning Malian singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Rokia was born in Mali as a member of the Bamana ethnic group. As her father was a diplomat, she traveled widely in her youth and as a result of this travel she was exposed to a wide variety of influences. While the Bamana have a tradition of griot performing at weddings, members of the nobility such as Rokia are discouraged from performing as musicians. Rokia attended lycée in Mali while her father was stationed in Brussels and started performing publicly as a university student in Bamako. Unusually for a female musician in Africa, Rokia plays acoustic guitar as well as sings, and she uses vocal harmonies in her arrangements which are rare in Malian music. In 1997, she linked with Mali musician Ali Farka Touré which raised her profile. She won an Radio France Internationale prize as "African Discovery" of 1997, an honor previously won by Mali's Habib Koité in 1993. As well as guitar she plays ngoni (lute) and balafon. Her first album Mouneïssa (Label Bleu), released in late 1997 in Mali and September 1, 1998 in Europe, was acclaimed for its fresh treatment and unqualifiable combinations of several Malian music traditions such as her use of the ngoni and the balafon. It sold over 40,000 copies in Europe. On July 11, 2000, her second album Wanita was released. Traoré wrote and arranged the whole album. The album was widely acclaimed with the New York Times nominating it as one of its critics' albums of the year. « Less