Amadou & Mariam

Any suggestion that it’s perhaps not the best idea for romantically involved couples to work together professionally is shot down by Amadou and Mariam; the pair have now been making music together for four decades, and recording since the early eighties. Both blind, the pair went from playing shows across their native Mali in the seventies and eighties to eventually outstripping their local scene and moving to Paris, where they signed a major record deal and sold over one hundred thousand copies of their first release. They’d go on to enjoy further acclaim in the early noughties, when they began collaborating with the world-renowned Manu Chao, who produced a record for them in 2004. In 2006, they recorded the official anthem for the FIFA World Cup in Germany, and accordingly topped the charts in that nation. More recently, they’ve worked with the likes of Damon Albarn, played three nights at the O2 Arena in London in support of Scissor Sisters, and played at major Western festivals like Latitude in Suffolk and Lollapalooza in Chicago. Their frankly joyous live show serves as a beautiful summation of their sound and attitude; as an introduction to the music of the African continent, you could do much worse than Amadou and Mariam.