Rokia Traoré

Rokia Traoré

Rokia Traoré is a Malian singer, songwriter and guitarist from Kolokani, Mali. She is born in 1974 and is associated with folk music and wider Malian and African traditions.

Early life and musical background

Traoré is a member of the Bambara ethnic group. She grows up travelling widely because her father is a diplomat, spending time in Algeria, Saudi Arabia, France, Belgium and other places where she encounters a broad range of musical influences. She attends lycée in Mali while her father is stationed in Brussels, and she begins performing in public during that period. She later studies sociology in Brussels before starting her musical career.

She performs as a multi-instrumentalist, playing guitar, ngoni and balafon. Her music draws on Malian traditions as well as European and American rock and pop that she hears throughout her life. The Bambara have a griot performance tradition at weddings, although people from noble backgrounds such as Traoré are discouraged from performing as musicians.

Recording career

Traoré first gains wider attention in 1997 through a link with fellow Malian musician Ali Farka Touré. In the same year she receives a Radio France Internationale prize as African discovery of the year, an honour that places her among the notable emerging artists of the period.

Her debut album, Mouneïssa, is released by Label Bleu in Mali in 1997 and in Europe in 1998. It is noted for combining several Malian musical traditions and for its use of ngoni and balafon. The album sells more than 40,000 copies in Europe.

Her second album, Wanita, follows in 2000. She writes and arranges the entire record, and it receives strong critical attention, including a New York Times nomination as one of the critics’ albums of the year.

In 2003 she releases Bowmboï, which includes two tracks recorded with the Kronos Quartet while remaining sung in Bambara. The album wins the BBC Radio 3 World Music Award, and by 2005 she has been nominated for that award three times.

Her later album Tchamantché is released in 2008. It wins a Victoires de la Musique award and a Songlines Artist of the Year Award. Her recording Beautiful Africa is produced by English musician John Parish and recorded at Toybox Studios in Bristol, with lyrics in French, Bambara and some English.

Collaborations and other work

Traoré works on the theatre piece Desdemona with novelist Toni Morrison and director Peter Sellars. The piece premieres in Vienna in 2011, receives its New York premiere at Lincoln Center later that year, and has its UK premiere at the Barbican in London in 2012.

The Barbican also presents a three-night series called Donguili – Donke – Damou in 2012. One performance, Sing, features Traoré with John Paul Jones and young musicians from her training programme in Mali, Foundation Passerelle. Another, Dance, features her band with John Parish on guitar, and Dream includes her narration of an ancient Malian tale with musical interludes.

She receives the inaugural Roskilde Festival World Music Award in 2009 for her work with Foundation Passerelle. She also joins Damon Albarn’s Africa Express tour in the UK in 2012, appearing in scheduled concerts and pop-up performances with musicians including John Paul Jones, Amadou Bagayoko, Baaba Maal and Paul McCartney.

Language and style

Traoré sings in Bambara and French, and some of her later work also uses English. Her career combines local Malian musical forms with wider international collaborations and touring.