Fatoumata Diawara, Kay Meek Arts Centre (1700 Mathers Ave, West Vancouver), Wednesday, March 20, 7:30 p.m. Tickets: $45/$42/$29 visit .
Fatoumata Diawara has built a modern global career from her traditional West African roots.
Last month the Afropop superstar performed live on the Grammy Awards telecast. Nominated for two awards (Best World Music Album for Fenfo, and Best Dance Recording for her vocals on the Disclosure track听 鈥淯ltimatum鈥�) she brought out an electric Gibson and played an extended guitar solo during the performance of her song 鈥淣egue, Negue,鈥� with the big Grammy house band.
鈥淚 am trying to create my own world,鈥� she says over the phone. After the Grammy鈥檚 Diawara toured Australia and is taking a short break at home this week before she starts a North American stint.
鈥淚n Africa you do not often see a woman playing an electric guitar. I鈥檝e been trying to keep traditions but at the same time be open to the world and I wanted something new. It鈥檚 very important to find one more freedom, you know.
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 take normal guitar lessons. I play with my heart. It鈥檚 kind of my blues. I use a modern instrument, instead of the kamele ngoni or the kora, but I鈥檓 transposing all those sounds to my Gibson guitar.鈥�
Diawara stands out in any crowd. Village Voice music critic Robert Christgau calls her the 鈥榮ubtlest of desert divas.鈥�
鈥淚 was excited to be (at the Grammys),鈥� she says. 鈥淚鈥檓 a fighter, I like to challenge myself. The harder it is the more I want to try it. I鈥檓 like a child. Keep your childhood spirit. Life is love.鈥�
Born in Abidjan, C么te d鈥橧voire, in 1982, Diawara鈥檚 parents sent her to live with an aunt in Bamako, Mali, when she was 11.听 Her aunt was an actress and she herself began to act at a young age, initially in films with directors Adama Drabo and Cheick Oumar Sissoko.
Interspersed with acting in films, Diawara also appeared on stage, including , under the direction of Peter Brook.
Burkina Faso-based filmmaker Dani Kouyat茅 made Diawara a household name in Mali at the age of 19 when she starred in the lead role of his popular film Sia, le r锚ve du python (2001). After the film was released, and for many years afterwards, everybody in Bamako knew her simply as 鈥淪ia.鈥�
Since then, Diawara has established her own name internationally with two solo albums, many collaborations in both film and music, as well as working as a political activist and ambassador focusing on improving conditions in her West African homeland.
In 2009, she toured as a backup singer/dancer with Wassoulou singer Oumou Sangar茅 which gave her a firsthand taste of what life is like on the road. Over the past decade Diawara has crisscrossed the world several times performing her music, which like her mentor Sangar茅, is a modern Afropop rooted in Wassoulou cultural traditions from south of Bamako.
A keen collaborator, her first album, Fatou, which made many top-10 lists in 2011, features musicians, such as Fela Kuti drummer Tony Allen, master kora musician Toumani Diabat茅 and Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones, jamming together on her tunes. The debut album includes a tribute to Sangar茅, 鈥淢akoun Oumou.鈥�
In tandem with her music, Diawara has continued working in cinema, including Abderrahmane Sissako鈥檚 Academy Award-nominated masterwork, Timbuktu (Le chagrin des oiseaux) in 2014, and Lutz Gregor鈥檚 2016 documentary, Mali Blues, about a rich musical culture under threat from conservative Islamists.
Both films addressed the negative social changes experienced as Islamist militant groups moved into the northern regions of Mali and imposed strict fundamentalist Sharia law. In the film Timbuktu, many things are forbidden and the Jihadists sentence Diawara鈥檚 character, Fatou 鈥楲a Chanteuse,鈥� to 40 lashes for singing, and 40 lashes for being in the same room as a man who is not a member of her family.
鈥淚n Mali today the social conditions are very bad,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 very strange and we don鈥檛 know where we are going. There is no security. We didn鈥檛 have that fear before. Everybody has guns. The situation is becoming very serious.鈥�
Although Diawara is now based in Europe and spends much of the year on tour she goes back to her childhood home every chance she gets. It gives her an opportunity to catch up with her family, relax and recharge.
鈥淚 wouldn鈥檛 invite good friends to go to Bamako and that is something new,鈥� she says. 鈥�(Problems with fundamentalists started in the north) and now the insecurity is coming south. It鈥檚 getting larger. It鈥檚 getting worse day-by-day.鈥�
Diawara鈥檚 latest album, Fenfo (Something to Say), released in 2018, extends her reach into both modern Afropop and traditional themes using a battery of string instruments including kora, ngoni, electric guitar and cello. The latter instrument is played by French cellist Vincent S茅gal who has previously explored the relationships between Western classical and West African string influences with kora player Ballak茅 Sissoko on the 2009 duet album Chamber Music.
Fenfo in the Bambara language means 鈥渟omething to say.鈥� For Diawara, the album continues the push forward into new territory.
鈥淚t was quite free, I could do my own thing on Fenfo,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 had one year to compose the songs. It was very relaxed. You can feel that. Between the first album and the second one I collaborated with many great artists and I could feel the difference. I had control and I knew what I wanted.鈥�
A prolific composer and an inveterate traveller Diawara writes mainly on the road.
鈥淪ometimes I鈥檓 feeling lonely and I鈥檓 missing my son, then I compose,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 like music balances me. I write, because I want to feel good. I sing, because I want to feel good. I鈥檓 always composing, I have a lot of songs. I can connect with the spirit anywhere, anyplace. It could be on the train, it could be on the plane. In all my collaborations I go for different sounds because I want to listen to my heart and I will give you what I feel, right now.鈥�
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