Sona Diabaté (Guinea) one of the famous singers of West Africa, her charismatic stage presentation and her expressive, flexible voice spellbinds the audience at once. Her voice is soft and smooth, and then powerful like an "African Tina Turner". Her father, the famous singer Hadji Djeli Fodé Diabaté, taught her to sing and to play the balafon by familiy tradition. After some years at school she started a career as a griot singer and after meeting Miriam Makeba, a Guinean resident at that time, she joined the "Amazones de Guinée", Africa's first all-female band, which was famous worldwide, as a singer and rhythm guitar player. In the meantime a lot of recordings have been done, "garé-garé" for example climbing up the "European Worldmusic Charts" to place 3 (1996) following by invitations to festivals all over the world, also to the 8th Africa-Festival at Würzburg/Germany. Sona Diabaté is can be found on various compilation of west-african music at the side of Youssou N'Dour, Angelique Kidjo, Salif Keita, Oumou Sangare and many others.

The last production she has recorded is MANDINGO FESTIVAL together with the intercultural music project ARGILE - a colourful melange of modern african music without leaving the traditional origins of her culture. Have a look on the lable-site www.bibiafrica.de (pictures and music!) Or go to listen to the music to: www.kultur-k.de (english texts will be set up soon)

Discografie: Les Amazones de Guinée - Au coeur de Paris (Bolibana/1976) Sona Diabaté - Sons de la savane (Bolibana/1983) Sona Diabaté - Kankele-Ti (pam/1988) Sona Diabaté - Garé-Garé (pam/1996) Argile feat. Sona Diabaté - live in Africa & Europe (bibiafrica/Indigo/1998) Argile present MANDINGO FESTIVAL (bibiafrica/Indigo/2000).

Sona's new CD: "Tounkana" (bibiafrica) Release spring 2003 line-up - Sona Diabaté - voc, acc. guitar (Guinea) - Sylvie Nahounou - choir (Ivory-coast) - Kassoum Traore - djembé (Mali) - Fiadelia King - keyboards, voc (Ghana) - Dieter Weberpals - flutes, keyb. (Germany) - Steffen Witter - bass (Germany) - Charles Blackledge - drums, djembé (USA) We are at your disposal for any information you need. Best regards, Utta Fritsche

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