Fatoumata Diawara, Premiered Mar 14, 2024
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Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post showcases Mali, West African singer/songwriter Fatoumata Diawara's 2024 song "Somaw" featuring African American singer Angie Stone. The English translation for the Bambara word "somaw" is "family". This beautifully produced video showcases different types of Malian families.
In addition to the official YouTube video of "Somaw", this post presents information about Fatoumata Diawara and information about Angie Stone.
An excerpt from an online article about this record is also included in this pancocojams post.
The content of this post is presented for cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to Fatoumata Diawara and Angie Stone for their musical legacies. Thanks to all those who are featured in this video and thanks to the producer of this video. Thanks also to Richard Bolwell, the author of the article that is quoted in this post.
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Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2024/03/this-is-mali-west-africa-youtube-video.html for a related pancocojams post entitled "This Is Mali, West Africa (YouTube Video & Transcript About The The History & Current (2023) Conditions In Mali)".
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INFORMATION ABOUT FATOUMATA DIAWARA
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatoumata_Diawara
"Fatoumata Diawara ...(born
1982) is a Malian singer-songwriter currently living in France.
Diawara began her career as an actress in theatre and in
film, including Genesis (1999), Sia, The Dream of the Python (2001) and
Timbuktu (2014). She later launched a career in music, collaborating with
numerous artists and releasing three studio albums beginning with 2011 debut
Fatou. Diawara's music combines traditional Wassoulou with international
styles.
Early life
Diawara was born in 1982 in the Ivory Coast to Malian
parents. As an adolescent, she was sent back to their native Bamako in Mali to
be raised by an aunt. When she was eighteen, Diawara moved to France to pursue
acting. She briefly returned to Mali for a film role, but fled back to Paris to
avoid being coerced into marriage by her family.[1]
Film and theatre
After moving to France, Diawara appeared in Cheick Oumar
Sissoko's 1999 feature film Genesis, Dani Kouyaté's popular 2001 film Sia, le
rêve du python, and in the internationally renowned street theatre troupe Royal
de Luxe. She also played a leading role in the stage adaptation of the musical
Kirikou et Karaba.[2]
Simultaneously with pursuing her musical career, Diawara has continued her cinematic activities, with numerous roles, appearances, and musical input in multiple feature films, including in Timbuktu, which won seven César Award nods and an Academy Award nomination in 2014.[3]
Musical career
Diawara took up the guitar and began composing her own
material, writing songs that blend Wassoulou traditions of southern Mali with
international influences.[4] She has said that she is "the first female
solo electric guitar player in Mali".[5]
[...]
February 2015 saw her first live concert as an established international star in Mali, her home country, Festival sur le Niger[19] in Ségou stage once again with her long-time friend and mentor, Oumou
Sangaré, Bassekou Kouyate, and many other domestic Malian
acts.
Diawara was featured in the 2020 Gorillaz single "Désolé", which later appeared on their album Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez.[20] She performed a Tiny Desk home concert in February 2022.[21] Later that year, she published the album Maliba, created as a soundtrack for a Google Arts and Culture project to digitise manuscripts held in Timbuktu. The album was characterised by The Economist as "a wondrous work of cultural preservation from one of the biggest names in contemporary African music".[22]
Style
Noted for her "sensuous voice,"[23] Diawara sings
primarily in Bambara, the national language of Mali, and builds on the
tradition of "songs of advice" from the culture of her ancestral
Wassoulou region.[24] In her songs, Diawara has addressed issues such as the
pain of emigration; a need for mutual respect; the struggles of African women;
life under the rule of religious fundamentalists, and the practice of female
circumcision.[24] One song that exemplifies her focus on these topics is
"Mali-ko (Peace/La Paix)", a seven-minute song and video that
criticises the fundamentalist conquest of Northern Mali and urges unity to
quell resentment against the Tuareg minority whom some blamed for abetting the
incursion.[10] Diawara said about the song, ""I needed to scream with
this song, 'Wake up! We are losing Mali! We are losing our culture, our
tradition, our origins, our roots!'".[10]
Recognition and awards
She received two nominations at the 61st Annual Grammy
Awards for Best World Music Album for her album Fenfo and Best Dance Recording
for "Ultimatum" in which she was featured with the English band
Disclosure."...
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INFORMATION ABOUT ANGIE STONE
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angie_Stone
"Angela Laverne Brown (born December 18, 1961) known
professionally as Angie Stone, is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and
record producer. She rose to fame in the late 1970s as member of the hip hop
trio The Sequence. In the early 1990s, she became a member of the R&B trio
Vertical Hold. Stone would later release her solo debut Black Diamond (1999) on
Arista Records, which was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association
of America and spawned the single "No More Rain (In This Cloud)".
After transitioning to J Records, she released her second album, Mahogany Soul (2001), which included the hit single "Wish I Didn't Miss You"; followed by the albums Stone Love (2004) and The Art of Love & War (2007), her first number-one album on the US Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.[1]
Stone ventured into acting in the 2000s, making her film debut in the 2002 comedy film The Hot Chick, and her stage debut in 2003, in the role of Big Mama Morton in the Broadway musical Chicago. She has since appeared in supporting roles in films and television series as well as several musical productions, including VH1’s Celebrity Fit Club and TV One's R&B Divas, and movies such as The Fighting Temptations (2003), Pastor Brown (2009) and School Gyrls (2010).[1]
Stone has been nominated for three Grammy Awards, and has won two Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards.[1] In 2021, she received the Soul Music Icon Award at the Black Music Honors.
Early life
Stone was born in Columbia, South Carolina, where she began
singing gospel music at First Nazareth Baptist Church, under the leadership of
Reverend Blakely N. Scott. Her father, a member of a local gospel quartet, took
Stone to see performances by gospel artists such as the Singing Angels and the
Gospel Keynotes.[1]
2015–present: Dream and Full Circle
In November 2015, Stone released her seventh studio album
Dream on Shanachie Entertainment in collaboration with TopNotch Music and
Conjunction Entertainment.[33] Producer Walter Millsap III and Stone co-wrote
the majority of the album with a core group that also included former The
Clutch members Candice Nelson, Balewa Muhammad and producer Hallway
Productionz.[34][35] The album received positive reviews from critics who
called the record "another solid and empowering effort,"[36] and
debuted at number three at Top Hip-Hop/R&B Albums chart, with approximately
9,000 copies sold in its opening week.[37] The album's first single, "2
Bad Habits" became a minor hit on the Adult R&B Songs chart.[38]
Following another label change, Stone released the cover album Covered in Soul
through Goldenlane Records, compromising rendition of popular Phil Collins, Hot
Chocolate, and Neil Diamond songs. Preceded by the single "These
Eyes", a cover of the same-titled The Guess Who song, it failed to
chart.[39][40]
In July 2019, Stone released her ninth studio album Full Circle, on Conjunction Entertainment and Cleopatra Records. The album features the lead single "Dinosaur", produced by Walter Millsap III & Hallway Productionz.[41]"...
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ARTICLE EXCERPT
From https://www.mnprmagazine.com/news/fatoumata-diawara-somaw-feat-angie-stone/ "Fatoumata Diawara shares the video for ‘Somaw’ feat. Angie
Stone"By Richard Bolwell, March 15, 2024
"Fatoumata Diawara shares the video for 'Somaw' feat. Angie Stone. The track is taken from her latest critically acclaimed album ‘London Ko’.
'Somaw' ("family" in bambara) is a sincere and powerful declaration of love for family, an essential anchor point for these two artists, more than used to long international tours far away from home. Despite the many positives, the distance too often remains painful, and reunions are a real source of renewal.
Fatoumata's latest ‘London Ko’ was co-produced by Diawara, Daniel Florestano and Damon Albarn and features a host of guest musicians, including Damon Albarn, Angie Stone, Roberto Fonseca, M.anifest, Yemi Alade and -M-. Still rewriting the rules, Fatoumata plunges us back into her eclectic, avant-garde universe. With the different styles and approaches she brings to her music (afrobeat, jazz, pop, electro and even hip hop), ‘London Ko’ is an album that’s impossible to categorise."
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