Senegal’s Baaba Maal returns after years with new album
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Loading... - Djibril Toure
- 05 Apr 2023
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Amid a changing, modernizing world with climate change threatening his home, Senegalese singer-songwriter and activist Baaba Maal is releasing his first album in seven years, “Being.”
The genre-crossing album, released by Marathon Artists last Friday, is explores those themes and showcases traditional African instruments along with futuristic electronic sounds.
The first single from the record, “Yerimayo Celebration,” is a jubilant, rabble-rousing celebration of Maal’s roots in the small town of Podor in north Senegal, and the fishing community at its heart. Maal was born into a fisherman class and was expected to follow that career path, but he befriended Mansour Seck, a griot — or traveling storyteller and musician — and was welcomed into his family.
“I never thought I would stay in one place and doing one thing every day in my life. This is why music is a really good opportunity for me to go away, first, like a young person, like going on an adventure,” he said. “And it’s a way to liberate me and the people of my generation of this caste system where you have to stay in this place, do the same thing like your father or grandfather.”
Maal’s latest single, “Freak Out,” features vocalist Esau Mwamwaya of The Very Best. The video accompanying the track shows scenes from the Blues Du Fleuve festival, which Maal founded in his hometown on the Senegal River, bringing together musicians, artists, singers, activists and more from all over West Africa. Maal calls it “The Glastonbury of Africa.”
The veteran musician is headlining the Barbican in London for the first time in 20 years on May 30 and the audience can expect a unique experience. “Music is a celebration and music is a party and when it comes to an African party, it has to be an African party,” he added.
As well as being a musician, Maal is also an activist on the topics of climate change and refugees. Since 2003, he has been committed to various development challenges in Africa, working with different United Nations organizations. Read More…
