Article: Amadou & Mariam Live in New York City

Friday, June 21^st was the summer solstice, marking the first official day of the season the longest day of the year. There are many different ways to celebrate the beginning of the summer and for some music fans in New York City, Prospect Park was to place to be for the Amadou & Mariam / Bombino concert as part of the Celebrate Brooklyn Concert Series presented by BRIC Arts Media. The crowd showed up early and the venue filled up fairly quick.

Bombino (Omar Moctar) who is currently on a US tour opened the show to a sizable and cheerful crowd. The Tuareg singer-songwriter and guitarist from the northern desert of Niger played a number of songs from his latest album “Nomad”. With a beaming smile, he seemed to really enjoy himself on stage and despite the language barrier he was able to connect with the audience. He rocked the crowd and it was a beautiful sight.

After the great opening from Bombino and a brief intermission Amadou & Mariam walked on stage with the help of assistants. At the first sight of the blind Malian couple the crowd jumped up and erupted in cheers and applause. Dressed in matching red outfits they stood shoulder to shoulder in the middle of the stage and briefly greeted the audience. “Est-ce que ca va?” was the first thing Mariam Doumbia asked the crowd followed by “Do you feel alright?” from Amadou Bagayoko.

Backed by a four-piece band Amadou & Mariam started their set with the warm and smooth rhythm of “Mogo” followed by “Batoma”, “Wari”, “Africa Mon Afrique”, “Coulibali” and “Masiteladi” all of which had the crowd dancing. Leading up to the next song, “Wily Kataso”, Mariam took a moment to explain the meaning of its lyrics. Speaking in French she explained that sometimes you have tell those people who have overstayed their welcome to go home. Throughout the set they had similar spontaneous moments of engaging the crowd, which made the show even more enjoyable.

The performance continued with the following songs “Mon Amour Ma Cherie”, “Kobena”, “Dogon”, “La Realite”, “C’est Pas Facile” and they ended their 13-song set with “Beaux Dimanches” off of Dimance a Bamako. The concert could have ended there and the audience would have been happy with the amazing solstice night of music but luckily we were treated to a great encore. Amadou and Mariam came back on stage and treated the audience to a beautiful performance of “Sabali” and ended their show with a message of hope and peace to their beloved country of Mali before performing “On Veut La Paix”.

It was a pleasure to see Bombino and Amadou & Mariam performances and a great way to officially kick off the summer

Special thanks to the great team behind Celebrate Brooklyn and the great folks at Blake Zidell & Associates for providing AfroMuzik the opportunity to cover the event.