The music world has been paying tribute to one of the most influential African musicians of the last three decades. Amadou Bagayoko was one half of the Malian husband-wife duo, Amadou and Mariam, who both overcame disability to enjoy phenomenal global success.
His death last Friday at the age of 70 has cast the spotlight on the remarkable journey of this blind couple who have charmed the world with their blend of cultural rhythms with rock, pop and soul.
Their best-known song, Sabali, has been widely sampled by among others, Nas and Damian Marley on their album Distant Relatives and by the group Maroon 5 on Wipe Your Eyes from the album Overexposed.
“There was a very calm presence around them,” says Somali-American producer Rayzak Hassan recalling a recording session with the duo in Paris in 2007.
“I interacted with Amadou during our time in the studio and I was just struck by his personality and his commitment to the music of his country,” adds Hassan who currently resides in Nairobi.
He was also in the studio when his close friend and collaborator, Somali- Canadian rapper and singer, K’Naan recorded the song Africa with Amadou and Mariam for their 2008 album Welcome to Mali.
The second in a family of 14 children, Amadou Bagayoko was born on October 24, 1954, in Bamako, Mali. As a two-year-old boy, he was bitten by the music bug when he heard a group playing at a ceremony organised by his bricklayer father in their home village of Tarakoroni.
“I remember the music as if it were yesterday,” Amadou writes in his autobiography, Away from The Light of Day. “That day was a turning point for me. I developed a profound interest in music which gradually turned into an exclusive passion.”
When he enrolled in school, he would play the tam-tam (metal percussions) to an audience of his classmates during break time. Later, his father bought him a harmonica and a flute.
His eyesight had been affected by cataracts since birth and while undergoing treatment as a young boy, doctors diagnosed a deeper problem: his corneas were infected by trachoma. An attempt at surgery was too late to save his sight.
Amadou was not deterred in his determination to develop his musical skills as he learnt the guitar from an uncle who was a musician and trained his voice to sing.
By 1970 he and a group of other musicians formed an acoustic band called Bagadadji performing in the streets of Bamako, at weddings and other festivities.
Amadou then joined the State-sponsored ensemble the National Orchestra B where his knowledge of music and his technical skills grew. “My disability had not prevented me from developing talents that sighted people admired,” he wrote.
When his father was transferred to work in Koutiala, southern Mali, he joined the local orchestra, and at age 18, won the prize for best guitarist in the region.
In 1973, Amadou returned to Bamako and joined Les Ambassadeurs, one of the greatest Malian bands of the era, which included singer, Salif Keita.
Amadou and Mariam performing at the Solidays festival at the Paris-Longchamp racecourse in Paris, France on July 4, 2021.
Photo credit: Pool
The following year he made his first trip outside Mali, when the band was invited to tour France for two months. After that, they undertook a long tour of West Africa, starting in Guinea, then Ivory Coast, and Nigeria.
Back in Mali, Amadou enrolled at the newly opened Institut de Jeunes Aveugles (IJA), an institution for young blind people, where he learnt braille.
It was here that he met Mariam Doumbia, a singer who had contracted measles when she was five and gradually lost her sight until she was completely blind. Amadou helped arrange her music and the pair recorded their first songs at the Radio Mali studios.
Together with other musicians, they formed a band called Eclipse, where she sang lead vocals while he played solo guitar. They gained nationwide fame when they recorded a song for the National Lottery in Mali which marked the beginning of their career as a duo. Their personal relationship also blossomed resulting in their marriage in 1980.
A meeting with French record executive Marc-Antoine Moreau in Mali led to a contract with Polygram Records, after which they relocated to Paris in the 1990s.
In over four decades, the pair produced music prolifically and their 2004 album Dimanche a Bamako (Sunday in Bamako) remains their definitive recording. They were nominated for a Grammy Award in 2010 for the album Welcome to Mali.
Amadou and Mariam composed the official song for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany and performed at the Nobel Peace Prize concert honouring Barack Obama in 2009.
Their last major international show was at the closing ceremony of the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris. As Amadou wrote: “We cross-cross a planet our eyes cannot see. We play all over the world. There are few countries we haven’t played in.”
It may now be up to one of the couple’s three children, their second son DJ Sam who sings, plays guitar and raps, to take up his famous father’s mantle.
