Amadou & Mariam Issue #39

Welcome To Mali

By Katerina Herodotou
Published: March 1st, 2009 | 2:14pm

Seeing Amadou Bagayoko and Mariam Doumbia sing love songs to each other live three years ago brought tears to my eyes and warmed my heart. Imagine a duo, who met in an institute for the blind in 1970s Mali, perpetually smiling at the audience and cooing “Je t’aime” back and forth for the entirety of their upbeat set.

Manu Chao manned the production of 2004’s Dimanche and provided guest instrumentals and vocals on several tracks, but for Welcome To Mali the couple invited musicians as eclectic as Blur frontman Damon Albarn and Somalian-Canadian rapper K’Naan to provide flair. Opening with Albarn’s track, “Sabali,” the duo set a pop-y tone for the rest of the album, borrowing a bit from both East and West. Drum machines and synthesizers merge with Bagayoko’s guitar riffs, and Doumbia’s voice gets treated to various electronic effects that manage to preserve its sweetness.

While the duo’s new direction is decidedly more polished, the flavor of Mali still shines through. The songs are rhythmic, danceable, and filled with West-African instruments that compliment each percussive lyric — kora alongside keyboard, English alongside Bambara. “I Follow You,” a great guitar-pop track with call-and-response vocals that demand singing along, is a love ballad for the ages.