As the MC announces that we are to meet “the king of African pop” before Youssou N’Dour comes on stage, this still seems to underplay the history and importance of the most celebrated and influential living musician on the continent. The Senegalese singer and songwriter transformed the west African music scene by mixing ancient influences with the very modern and then took his music to the world. Now 63, N’Dour remains a thrilling performer.
A lithe, athletic figure with cropped hair, glasses and sporting a stylish black-and-white suit, he warms up with ballad Xale Rewmi, gathers pace with praise song Serin Fallu and then eases into one of his great melodic anthems, Li Ma Weesu. By now he is joined by his full 10-piece band, with four percussionists including virtuoso talking drum player Assane Thiam and two backing singers. N’Dour is blessed with one of the most distinctive, powerful tenor voices in Africa, and tonight he is on magnificent form, reworking and transforming dance songs and emotional ballads with urgent spontaneity and sudden bursts of improvisation as he sways and dances across the stage.
