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Omar Pene (born 28th December 1955) is a Senegalese vocalist and composer, who is the lead singer of Super Diamono, and is now a solo artist. [1]
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Omar Pene (born 28th December 1955) is a Senegalese vocalist and composer, who is the lead singer of Super Diamono, and is now a solo artist. [1]
Omar Pene was born in the working-class neighborhood of Derkle in Dakar. Having been singing his whole life and playing in other bands, he formed Super Diamono in 1975–76, with previous bandmates Cheikh Diagne, Bassirou Diagne, and Bazlo Diagne, along with members of Tropical Jazz De Dakar, including singer Ismael Lo. [1] Other members of the band included Bob Sene, Aziz Seck, Lapa Diagne, Abdou Mbacke and Adama Faye, a jazz keyboardist who gave the group a harder electric sound. [1]
In Dakar during the 1980s, Super Diamono were one of the few bands who could compete with Youssou Ndour in Dakar, [1] and the two singers had a lively artistic competition, both with devoted fanbases. Fans of Pene and Super Diamono used to congregate particularly at the Balafon Club, near the Autonomous Port of Dakar. Super Diamono's music was energetic reggae and jazz influenced dance music rooted in Senegalese mbalax rhythms, which are frenetic and syncopated. [1] Their songs cover socially conscious topics such as unemployment and education, and they were described by Rough Guide: World Music as "the people's band of Dakar's proletarian suburbs". [1]
In the mid-1980s Ismael Lo left to follow a solo career and was replaced by Mamadou Marga. By 1991 most of the group's original members had left for other projects, and Pene continued the band with session musicians, touring Europe and North America four years later. [1] To date, he has released more than thirty albums and cassettes.[ citation needed ] Under their new name Super Diamono de Dakar , the band released their first album Géédy Dayaan in 1979 under Griot Records (Disques Griot). [2]
In August 2021, he released his first solo album Climat. [3]
Youssou N'Dour is a Senegalese singer, songwriter, musician, composer, occasional actor, businessman, and politician. In 2004, Rolling Stone described him as, "perhaps the most famous singer alive" in Senegal and much of Africa and in 2023, the same publication ranked him at number 69 on its list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time. From April 2012 to September 2013, he was Senegal's Minister of Tourism.
Senegal's music is best known abroad due to the popularity of mbalax, a development of conservative music from different ethnic groups and sabar drumming popularized internationally by Youssou N'Dour.
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Ibrahima Sylla was a Senegalese record producer born in Ivory Coast and founder of the African music label Syllart Records. He was an internationally acclaimed musician whose production and music direction defined popular African music. From West African dance, to Congolese Soukous, to melodic griot-led songs, Sylla's signature as a music producer is unmistakable. He has demonstrated his familiarity with many contemporary African musical genres, and he has worked with most of Africa's musical greats.
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Mbalax is the national popular dance music of Senegal and the Gambia. Though associated with the Wolof, mbalax has its sacred origins in the Serer people's ultra-religious, ultra-conservative njuup music tradition—and their sacred ndut rite ceremonies. By the 1970s, it became a fusion with other popular music from the African diaspora, the West, and afropop such as jazz, soul, Latin, Congolese rumba, and rock blended with sabar, the traditional drumming and dance music of the Wolof of Senegal. The genre's name derived from accompanying rhythms used in sabar called mbalax.
Fama Diagne Sène is a Senegalese writer. Educated in Thiès, she became a teacher there. Ken Bugul listed her among "illustrious women" in Senegalese literature. In 1997, she won the presidential award for art and literature with Chant des ténèbres. Born to a Serer family, Fama's controversial play Mbilem ou le baobab du lion denounces Serer tradition and received great criticism from the Serer traditionalists of Senegal. The Mbilim is a religious festival in the Serer calendar, celebrated once a year and is equivalent to the new year. In pre-colonial times, right until recently, some Serer griots were buried in the trunks of a baobab tree rather than buried in a pyramid tomb with all the regalia dictated by Serer religion. Tomb burial and mummification were always given to the Serer nobility, but some Serer griots were not buried this way. In this play, she criticises this tradition and came head on with the Serer priestly class.
Ismaël Lô is a Senegalese musician and actor.
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Laba Badara Sosseh; Labba Sosseh or Laba Sosseh was a Senegalese son and salsa singer and composer. According to Abdoulaye Saine of Miami University, Sosseh is regarded as "the greatest salsa singer of his generation and perhaps of all time in Senegambia Major."
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Super Diamono was a ten-member band from Dakar, Senegal. It was formed in 1974 or 1975. Omar Pene was a founding-member, and the group was alternately led by the singers Mamadou Lamine Maïga and Musa Ngum. It started with traditional West African music, but quickly turned to an Afro-Cuban and pop-influenced sound. From 1977 they called their music "Mbalax-blues". In 1979, Ismaël Lô, a co-founder of the group, rejoined the band as a guitar player, but soon left again for his solo career. According to Billboard Magazine, it was Senegal's "first truly local pop style." Many of the former members who later became solo artists made their break-through from this band.
Musa Ngum was a singer and songwriter who was very popular in Senegal and Gambia. He was one of the pioneers of mbalax music, and "helped to define the mbalax style of popular music in the Senegambia" and "had a strong influence on Youssou N'Dour and other mbalax pioneers". He was "something of a cult icon back in the Senegambia region, and a pioneer of the mbalax fusion style". The mbalax, which originated from the Serer religious and ultra–conservative njuup music tradition sang during Ndut rites by circumcised boys was the foundation of Ngum's music career. He mastered many of the njuup classics and built a name for himself while at the same time developing his voice.
Géédy Dayaan or Geedy Dayaan is an album by Senegalese band Super Diamono in 1979, under their new name at the time, Super Jamano de Dakar. It was released on Disques Griot. The album was recorded at the Jandeer, a night club in Dakar.
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