Dobet Queen Of African Music

Dobet Gnahore, the biggest revelation in African music is a talented artiste who dazzles her audience with rich African music. With her vibrato voice, Dobet could not deny her elated audience at Alliance Francaise the essence of rich and quality African songs. The concert, organized by the French Embassy in collaboration with Alliance Francaise was aimed at promoting African music to lovers of African culture. In an interview with Beatwaves, Dobet Gnahore who expresses her displeasure about the living conditions of Africans through her songs did not hesitate to say “I am tired of my continent. I am tired of my country Ivory Coast”. The multi-lingual songstress expresses her disappointment at recent developments in Ivory Coast in her favourite song ‘N’sielle’, which means ‘I’m tired’. “I feel sorry about these last few years because now my country is in the shadows. “This song is my own feeling regarding the crisis in my country. In this song I am talking to the nation. I’m telling the politicians that I’m tired of seeing the blood pouring, tired of seeing people disappear. It is the same in ‘Pillage’ (the oil thief), my other song. ‘Pillage’ expresses my feeling of anger.” As an artiste she seems happy to have one foot on each continent; “I spend most of my time in Harseille or on tour, and once or twice a year I go to Abidjan because I hate the current situation there”. As a multi-lingual, Dobet Gnahore showed her audience through her songs the sonic and tonal differences between the Fon, Bete and Baule languages; and what poise too! With a delightful and friendly personality she told Beatwaves that as a teenager she had immersed herself in African music, dance, theatre and languages at the artistes’ village near Abidjan, which is run by the legendary Were Were Liking. After school the young Dobet went to study with the Abidjan-based Ki-Yi Mbock Company, directed by Were Were Liking. This was where her musical career began. Supported by her family, particularly her father Bon Gnahore, a master percussionist, Dobet proved also to be a great dancer. “In the Kiyi school I learned that to be on stage you must have a lot of artistic skills and be good at all of them so the audience is not bored. “The Kiyi motto is to approach all the branches of culture. I’ve always liked ideas that make me dream, so it’s those dreams that I wanted to bring to life for the audience. I really like to mix up all the arts (dance, song, percussion, and theatre) to stay loyal to my initial training. “Because I evolved in a pan-African band which composed lots of different styles of music, I want to continue in that way and open my music to the Western world and other feelings of life - injustice, joy, fear - but also feelings from other people. “I’m attentive to any feelings or melodies that come to me. I write to avoid forgetting my ideas or I record the melodies.”