Mamani Keita

Mamani Keita is another artist I discovered, when I was looking at the new releases in world music on iTunes. I really like the way in which she combines the traditional music of her region with pop and electronic music.

Mamani Keita is a Malian singer, who was brought up to speak the Bambara language, and therefore incorporates traditional Bamabara music into her songs. Her interest in singing seems to have been inspired by her grandmother who began singing with her from a early age. Her music career was developed further when she joined the Bamako Orchestra and then later on joined the Badema (Mali's national orchestra). She started to become more famous when she went to France and sang the chorus on albums with musicians like Hank Jones, Djanuno Dabo and Super Rail Band de Bamako. Then she was invited to join the band Tama, with whom she recorded the album, Espace. She also released an electro-world album with  Marc Minelli called Elektro Bamako and this eventually gave rise to her solo career.

The title of the song I've included means, "To earn french money", so quite possibly she's trying to use this song to say that she didn't find it easy to find a job when she arrived in France.

If you'd like to listen to more of her music, here are the links to her albums on Amazon: Gagner l'argent français and Yelema (By Nicolas Repac).
This is the album she recorded with Marc Minelli: Electro Bamako.
This is the album she recorded, while she was part of the group Tama: Espace.