Ablaye Thiossane

TRACKLIST OF THE ALBUM “THIOSSANE”

1/Amineta NDIAYE
A love song, dedicated to the beloved lady who shouldn’t bask in her own beauty too much or throw tantrums if she wants to please her man.
Relationships must be based on harmony and mutual understanding.
2/Birame Yacine Boubou
The subject-matter of this song is taken from a tragic historical event that took place at the royal court of a Damel in Cayor. Queen Yacine Boubou was sacrificed to save the Royal Throne.
When the King died, a war of succession broke out amongst the princes. Prince Birame, whose mother had been tragically sacrificed, emerged as the lawful heir as he was the last baby his mother nursed before being sacrificed to save the throne. This popular song is based on historical facts, often referred to by Senegalese Griots.
3/ Bouki Ndiour (The hyena)
In African Bouki tales, hyenas are pictured as simpletons eager for flesh. Here, one of them makes a pact with “Diargogne” the spider. But hyenas can never keep a secret...
4/Djenaro Ngoulane
An inhospitable courtesan violates a rule of Senegalese hospitability, a cardinal virtue called Teranga: welcoming people and sharing the African soil with foreigners.
5/Lat Dior
The greatest Damel (king) of Cayor, fought ferociously against colonisation, the last bastion against Western occupation in Senegal. A Cayorian, like Lat Dior, Ablaye Laye celebrates in song the story of the man symbolising Senegalese independence.
6/Ndiaye Diatta Ndiaye
The artist celebrates his lineage: the Ndiaye, a Griot family from Cayor, a lineage of orchestra conductors commonly called Tambours Majors (drum majors), the masters of rhythm and of Sabars (tom-tom drum), which convey sounds and messages according to beating patterns only the initiated can master.

7/Thielel Lamboul
The story of a girl who has lost her mother and is ill-treated by her mother’s co-spouse, under the complacent eyes of her father. Thielel is an abused child who carries out, at a young age, all the household chores while her half-sister lazes about the house.
8/Laye Woyena Laye
Ablaye Ndiaye pays tribute to another Laye (Mboup), a great Senegalese singer, the founding member of Orchestra Baobab and a member of the Senegalese traditional operatic ensemble, who died in 1975.
In this vocal tribute, he invites a former member of Orchestra Baobab, Medoune Diallo from the band Africando, to sing in duet a very famous song written by the departed artist.
9/Siket (billy goat)
A traditional song inspired by the “leb” African tales, which depict animals – here, a billy goat – conveying educational messages. It appears that Africa had created fables before La Fontaine. In his message conveyed by “Siket the billy goat”, Ablaye Ndiaye urges people to do things according to their abilities. For this song, he sings in duet with Khar Mbaye Madiaga, the most senior representative of traditional Senegalese singers.
10/Nane Deme Thiès
A song inspired by the harvest songs of farm labourers in Baol (a region in Senegal). The tune on which it is based is called “Takhourane”. With this track, he celebrates living in Thiès.
11/ Talene Lampe Yi
In 1966, President Senghor invited the entire Black diaspora to attend the first World Festival of Negro Arts, held in Dakar. Key players of Black culture came to Senegal from all over the world to celebrate this get-together on African soil: Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillepsi, Franco and Tabu Ley Rochereau (from Congo), Odeneizer from Nigeria, etc.
In 1977, the second edition of the festival, called FESTAC, was held in Lagos. It was not until 34 years later, in 2010, that the third Festival of Negro Arts (FESMAN) was organised in Senegal, under the aegis of President Abdoulaye Wade; a great panafricanist who invited representatives of Black culture – from Brazil to the rest of America, from Senegal to the Caribbean, from the north to the south of Africa – to this great cultural celebration, marking a new beginning for Africa.