Youssou N’Dour, also known as Youssou Madjiguène Ndour, is a Senegalese singer, songwriter, musician, composer, sporadic actor, businessperson, and politician who was born on October 1, 1959.
He was said to be “perhaps the most renowned singer alive” in Senegal and most of Africa by Rolling Stone magazine in 2004. He served as Senegal’s Minister of Tourism from April 2012 to September 2013.
What type of music does Youssou N Dour play?
He is well-known for his incredible vocal range and for popularizing mbalax, a genre of popular music in Senegal that primarily combines traditional Wolof instrumental and vocal forms with Cuban and other Latin American popular genres.
The form of popular Senegalese music known as mbalax, which has holy roots in the Serer music njuup tradition and ndut initiation rites, was developed by N’Dour and is currently played by all Senegalese people (including the Wolof). He is the focus of the internationally distributed films Youssou N’Dour: I Bring What I Love (2008) and Return to Gorée (2007), both of which won awards for their respective directors (Pierre-Yves Borgeaud and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi).
N’Dour appeared in the 2006 movie Amazing Grace as Olaudah Equiano.
