In June 2011 Melstar travelled to Liverpool to report from the Africa Oye festival, the biggest annual gathering of African artists in Europe. A few artists were already on her radar, none more so than Fatoumata Daiwara, at Oye to make her UK debut as a solo artist. As she exploded onto the stage with all the vivacity of a roots rock artist, the crowd rose to the occasion. Not the shy guitar playing artist one anticipates. With a vigour, passion and artistic talent as big as her ambition to defend women’s right, find out what Fatou had to share with Africa Oye and Melstar backstage.
'Fatou' greeted the audience at Liverpool's African Oye with such electric colour and majestic demeanour, that it was hard not to cheer and get transfixed with wonderment. Dressed in a bright red head-wrap, a canary yellow scarf around her neck flowed over a red leopardskin print corset. A cowrie shell belt slung on her hips over a spiky skirt, she was ready to rock the stage. And 'Fatou' is no stranger to the stage. Her formative years as an artist saw her on screen as an actress in her home country of Mali and also as a singer and musician performing with the great Malian singer Oumou Sangare. “I'm ready to start,” she says beaming a beautiful excited smile.
Her ease and confidence on stage comes from years of experience and hardwork. As Fatou’ tells me about her journey, I realise how easy it is to take these things forgranted, “It's not easy”, she says, “to have your own project, to defend your own project...not every woman can do it. Before I thought it was only in Mali but I've lived in Paris for ten years. It's not easy. Women have to believe in themselves and try to find a new way to be on stage, to do more festivals, because we can share our places with guys.”
Her own project is a dynamic and vibrant fusion of Wassalou roots, sung in Wassalou and Bambara with a rock influence and a nod to the blues and funk too. It's not just the music though, Fatou' is on fire as she engages with the audience, dances, performs guitar solos and sings, all to rapturous applause. She has so much energy, it's infectious. She's worked hard for this.
Whilst chatting, we touched on something that alongside her music, Fatou' is also very passionate about, the fact that it is more difficult than it should be for women to stand their ground. “I would like to represent Malian women, African women, women of the world and our values. I would like to defend this image because women are beautiful!” Then she said something that really touched me, she inadvertently coined a beautiful phrase through translation. About being a woman, she said, “...she is funny, she can give so much love because she has mama's feeling in her.” Fatou’ wants to do her best to express what it means to be a woman and to defend women’s rights through her music.
She closed with another wonderful beam of her beautiful trademark smile, the perfect end to a performance that has left me and most of the people around me in the audience, buzzing and giddy. I very much look forward to following Fatou's future. It has been a pleasure.
Fatoumata Diawara’s album “Fatou” is out now on World Circuit Records where it has been top of the European World Music Charts for the last six months. Fatoumata is appearing at the Jazz Café on 6th February.
