OMAR PENE
Dakar, Dakar, Senegal | INDIE
Music
Press
"S’il n’a jamais eu l’aura internationale de Youssou N’Dour, Omar Pene n’en est pas moins son égal en terre sénégalaise, en sa qualité de leader du Super Diamono, l’une des matrices du Mbalax et de ses syncopes festives. Pene mène de longue date une carrière parallèle, dont ce Ndayaan constitue un remarquable jalon. Acoustique, l’instrumentation n’exclut pas des ondulations électriques, de basse notamment, sur lesquelles la voix haute,habitée, gracile de Pene déploie des mélodies de toute beauté. Les textes sont ancrés dans la réalité dakaroise : les avanies d’un chômeur, une mère assumantun enfant naturel, la trahison d’un proche. A la différence de N’Dour, qui a choisi la politique pour porter ses revendications, Pene continue de se battre par sa musique, ce qui explique certainement que celle-ci conserve une urgence qui fait parfois défaut à son illustre rival." - Mondomix
Discography
Ndayaan (2011 / Aztec Musique)
Ndam (2009 / Aztec Musique)
Moom Tamit (2007)
30 ans (2005)
Myamba (2004)
Lamp (2003)
25 ans (2001)
Nanga Def (1998)
Tiki-tiki (1997)
Direct from Dakar (1996)
20 ans déjà (1995)
Fari (1994)
Nila (1992)
Soweto (1987)
Mam (1984)
Photos
Bio
Omar Pene style is raw; his music takes its roots in the street expression.
Indeed, he always has defended the youth coming from
wise suburb or poor districts, so as the student class, the
jobless and the farmers.
Still today, Omar embodies Hope and Future, keeping alive his close relationship to his public. A part of his fans have been working together since 1989 through an organization called the « AFSuD » (Super Diamonos Fans Association The Super Diamono has been Omar Penes backing band for thirty years) to make the lifeconditions of theirs citizen fellows better. Then, the band impact has been increasing
more and more, first on the dakarian youth and later on the international public.
In return for this commitment, Omar Pene was several times awarded, especially as « the best African musician » in the United States by the CFTV and he got a « Golden Kora » at Johannesburg in 1998. « In the 70s, music was controlled by griots, praises singers, and we wanted to distance
ourselves with political and social themes » says Omar Pene about his collaboration with the Super Diamono and the beginning of Mbalaax. This genre mixes West African
rhythms with Jazz, traditional with electric instruments; Omar remains the biggest icon of MBalax.
His voice is known as one of the most beautiful of World Music. His music, influenced by Mbalax, but also Blues, Jazz, Reggae music and Salsa, makes him a famous artist, considered as the greatest ones of Senegal and whole Africa. Youssou NDour, his « rival », describes him as « The living legend of African music ».
NDAYAAN NEW ALBUM
(2011 / Aztec Musique - Rue Stendhal)
Faithful to his political commitment, Omar Pene choose once more to support the generations to come with this new album.
Released in December 2011, Ndayaan tells us children misery to denounce the elders carelessness, those who have made this world a full-of-paradox society and who have
sacrificed their descendants.
A universal glance album, admission of a situation we surely find in Africa, but also in the other continents. And since this admission can be expressed thanks to words as well as
music, Omar Pene has decided to go on with the experience which made « Ndam », his previous album (2009), a successful one: his own Mbalax fusion.
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