INTRODUCING YOU TO BANDS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW, BUT TOTALLY SHOULD.

Amadou and Mariam

When you think to yourself “I want some amazing music that will expand my own horizons and keep me stunned by musical beauty” you obviously would try to find something created by a blind 60-something year old couple from Mali. If you’re not, you’re just plain wrong.

Amadou and Mariam are just that couple. Meeting in the 70’s at an institute for young blind people in Mali, they fell in love and married in the 80’s and combined their musical talents as they explored and expanded the local music scenes they were a part of. When their music grew larger than their home country could contain, they moved to Ivory Coast and eventually caught some international recognition. But it wasn’t until the shifted to Paris that their Afro-blues stylings really propelled them to large scale fame with their 2004 album Dimance a Bamako (widely recognized as one of the best albums in the world for that year).

Far ranging musical influences from their home nation to Syrian violins and Cuban trumpets mix with electronica, rock and traditional Malian folk to give them something way beyond a distinctive sound. Singing in Bambara, French and some English while collaborating with TV On The Radio, Santigold and Damon Albarn (among others) really make this duo a band nobody should ever have the misfortune of missing.