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Dobet Gnahoré

From Cote d'Ivoire

Skin-pricking tunes from West Africa's acoustic quarter

That Dobet Gnahore would become a singer was pre-ordained, written in the stars. At the age of 12, she pleaded with her actor/musician father to take her out of formal education, to which he agreed. Instead, she learned of the world from those around her in Le Village Ki-Yi, an artistic commune co-founded by her WeréWeré LiKing and her dan Boni and located in the throbbing metropolis of Abidjan. It proved to be an excellent training-ground for Dobet's artistic inclinations, particularly when a guitar-carrying French backpacker called Colin Laroche de Feline came to spend an extended stay at Ki-Yi. The pair formed a fruitful musical partnership that, nearly 15 years later, continues to excel. Their gently undulating, acoustic songs ooze an easy pan-African sound, most likely drawn from the continent's many musicians who Dobet encountered in the commune. And don't let her striking looks deceive - when you expect her to bawl and wail, her voice soothes and comforts.
www.dobetgnahore.com
(Biography by Nige Tassell 2010)

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