Since the release of her debut album Moussoulou in 1989, there’s been no respite for the Malian singer Oumou Sangare. Notable waymarks on her rich and fruitful journey include some of the most definitive recordings in the history of contemporary African music, all released on the World Circuit label: Ko Sira in 1993, Worotan in 1996 and Seya in 2009, the latter nominated for a Grammy in the Best World Music Album category. Numerous international tours and performances on prestigious stages such as the Sydney Opera House, London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, Tokyo’s Nippon Budokan as well as Copenhagen Jazz Festival complete this roll of honour.

Recorded in multiple locations (US, Mali and France) and her first new material since 2017’s critically acclaimed ‘Mogoya’, ‘Timbuktu’ is a stunning collection of songs, fusing her distinctive Malian sound and voice with elements of blues, folk and rock – resulting in a timeless body of work, free from borders and genr...

Since the release of her debut album Moussoulou in 1989, there’s been no respite for the Malian singer Oumou Sangare. Notable waymarks on her rich and fruitful journey include some of the most definitive recordings in the history of contemporary African music, all released on the World Circuit label: Ko Sira in 1993, Worotan in 1996 and Seya in 2009, the latter nominated for a Grammy in the Best World Music Album category. Numerous international tours and performances on prestigious stages such as the Sydney Opera House, London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, Tokyo’s Nippon Budokan as well as Copenhagen Jazz Festival complete this roll of honour.

Recorded in multiple locations (US, Mali and France) and her first new material since 2017’s critically acclaimed ‘Mogoya’, ‘Timbuktu’ is a stunning collection of songs, fusing her distinctive Malian sound and voice with elements of blues, folk and rock – resulting in a timeless body of work, free from borders and genres. The album weaves intimate sonic connections between traditional West African instruments and those linked to the history of the blues, most notably the kamele n’goni (traditional lute) and its distant heirs, the Dobro and slide guitar

Timbuktu, the first release on her own Oumsang imprint, is the latest act in this unparalleled musical epic. It consecrates this artist who rose up from the poor neighbourhoods of Bamako to become a global superstar and universally admired feminist icon. With the powerful aura of a Grace Jones, black transgressive icon par excellence, Oumou has long since broken through the barriers that separate continents and musical styles.

Although the title of the album, Timbuktu, alludes to the political situation in Mali, a country facing total disintegration and looking deep into its own history (powerfully symbolised by that legendary trading town in the northern desert) for reasons to be hopeful, many of its songs are based on Oumou’s own unique experience. When, in ‘Sira’ (literally ‘the baobab’ in Bambara), she sings about the offspring of well-heeled and erudite families who, despite all their advantages, lapse into delinquency and throw away a promising future, it’s almost unconsciously to underline the contrasting and exemplary nature of her own trajectory.

“Music is within me,” Oumou declares. “Without it, I’m nothing, and nothing can take it away from me! I’ve put my life into this record, my whole life–this life in which I’ve known hunger, the humiliation of poverty and fear, and from which today, I draw glory.”

– Biography by Francis Dordor
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