R.I.P. Ramata Diakité

Only a few days ago I discovered that Malian singer Ramata Diakité (35) has died in the night of 30 October. Much too young to die, she just got married in September to a Burkinabe businessman, it was her third marriage. She has been burried in Burkina Faso.


Ramata was one of the more successful female singers from the Wassoulou region, just second to Oumou Sangaré. She sold in excess of 100,000 legal cassettes in her home country. Her biggest hit album was « Na », an album that was released worldwide in 1999.

She succeeded in combining the Wassoulou music with modern influences and the album still stands as a classic of Malian music, especially for this mix of the old and the new. Another hightlight was her contribution to the album « Kulanjan ». by Toumani Diabaté & Taj Mahal.

Here's one of her more recent songs, « Sigui » :

Madilu 1950-2007

It has already been more than two years since he is gone: Le Grand Ninja, Madilu System. He started singing in 1969, rose to fame as one of the main singers of Franco's TPOK Jazz, where he contributed to the success of songs such as « Non », « Mario », « Réponse de Mario » (1985), « La Vie des hommes » (1986) and « Mamou (Tu Vois?) » (1984).

In the last two decades his solo albums encountered reasonable success.

In the following song, split in two videos, « Destin » (a later version called « Biya » was released on his « Sans commentaire » solo album), he sung about his love for his companion, that should never end. Especially in the second part they really rock. Singers are, besides Madilu, Josky Kiambukuta, Diatho Lukoki and the late Djo Mpoyi. The genius on guitar was Jerry (or Gerry) Dialungana, who is neither no longer with us.





The later version by Madilu can be watched here:




More info on Madilu on Musiques d'Afrique