Amadou Bagayoko, one half of the Malian musical duo Amadou & Mariam, has died on the age of 70. Recognized for fusing Malian music with traditional rock influences, Bagayoko is survived by Mariam Doumbia, his spouse and musical companion, and his three kids.
In accordance with Mali’s Minister of Tradition, Mamou Daffé, Bagayoko had been battling an undisclosed sickness for a while. Daffé revealed on tv that the musician handed away in Mali’s capital, Bamako, which doubled as Bagayoko’s birthplace.
Bagayoko was born in 1954 and have become blind at 15, the results of a congenital cataract. This led him to check at Mali’s Institute for the Younger Blind, the place he met Mariam Doumbia in 1976 whereas taking part in within the faculty’s Eclipse Orchestra. The 2 would finally marry within the Nineteen Eighties. Doumbia misplaced her personal eyesight when she was 5 years previous, and the duo was typically labeled as “the blind couple from Mali.”
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The duo steadily carried out all through the ’70s and ’80s earlier than reaching growing recognition within the ’90s and the aughts. 2004’s Dimanche à Bamako introduced them wider international success, and 2008’s Welcome to Mali obtained a nomination for Greatest Modern World Music Album on the 52nd Grammy Awards. Damon Albarn offered extra manufacturing on Welcome to Mali, and the duo would supply help to Albarn on excursions for his two bands, Blur and Gorillaz.
“Individuals are typically shocked once we clarify how a lot we had been influenced by Western pop music,” Bagayoko mentioned in a quote obtained through Rolling Stone. “I grew up listening to data by Rod Stewart, Led Zeppelin, James Brown, Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Pink Floyd, Stevie Marvel… That’s as a result of they had been the one data we had in Mali!”
The duo additionally offered musical accompaniment to 2 FIFA World Cups; alongside Herbert Grönemeyer, the duo composed “Have a good time the Day,” the 2006 World Cup’s official music. Later they carried out with Alicia Keys, John Legend, Tinariwen and Shakira on the 2010 World Cup’s Kick-Off Celebration in South Africa.
As their worldwide recognition grew, Amadou & Mariam offered help to rock musicians like Blur, U2, Coldplay, and extra. The duo typically referred to David Gilmour as their private hero, and in 2009, the Pink Floyd guitarist carried out alongside them at a London charity present. That very same 12 months, the couple carried out at Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize ceremony.
In the course of the press run for his or her 2017 file La Confusion, their last album, the duo mentioned, “We search to make folks pleased with our music, assist humanitarian causes and share optimistic messages concerning the good work being carried out by folks in each nook of the world.”
The duo had been performing up till Amadou’s dying. Most not too long ago, they coated Serge Gainsbourg’s “Je suis venu te dire que je m’en vais” on the 2024 Summer time Paralympics’ closing ceremony.
