VICTOR DEME

After a 30-year career in Burkina Faso, the Mandingo singer finally releases his first album.

Victor Démé inherited music from his mother, a griot that celebrated all the major weddings and christenings of Bobo Dioulasso in the 60's. She left him her poignant voice. From his father, he learnt another type of craft transmitted from one generation to the next in the Démé family. Tailoring was practiced by his uncles, aunts and sisters, descending from a long line of Marka tailors, a subgroup of West African Mandingos. It was in his father workshop in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, that Victor Démé sought refuge as a teenager. While working with his father during the day, he started to frequent the capital's clubs and to sing with several small bands at night. Growing up, he made a reputation for himself in Ivorian clubs, notably with the Super Mandé Orchestra, led by famed musician Abdoulaye Diabaté. In 1988, he came back to Burkina to exploit a new national momentum. The country profited from the dynamic initiated by red revolutionist Thomas Sankara who, before his assassination in 87, had done a lot for artistic creation. Aged 26, Démé was then overflowing with musical energy. He won several talent contests, including the 1989 contest of Bobo Dioulasso French Cultural Center, organized in partnership with Radio France Internationale, and the 1990 Cultural National Week's first prize in his class. Many big bands recruited him, such as the Echo de l'Africa and the Suprême Comenba – that was reigning over Ouagadougou's nights. But even though Victor Démé had become a popular singer in Burkina, fate kept him away from music for some years. When he tried to get back in the limelight after his long absence, things weren't easy. To earn a living, he often had to submit to the club and "maquis" owners who wanted him to take over classics from Salif Keita or Mory Kanté. Fortunately, Victor kept nurturing his own compositions and in 2005, he met Camille Louvel, manager of the Ouagajungle, an associative bar in Ouagadougou that held several live performances each week. In 2007, with the help of journalist David Commeillas and of Soundicate's activists, they founded the label Chapa Blues Records to promote Victor's music. The singer started to work on his album in the small studio improvised by the Ouagajungle team at the back of his artist residence in Ouagadougou (see documentary on www.myspace.com/victordeme). The studio is no more than two rooms separated by a truck windshield and equipped with a 16-track console, but it has became the rallying point of numerous talented artists. At 46, Démé has recorded there a unique mosaic of folk blues melodies, intimate Mandingo ballads, and Latin influences, salsa and flamenco. Written in Dioula language, "Burkina Mousso" is a tribute to all Burkinabe women "who built this country with their own hands", as sings Démé. His lyrics appeal to national solidarity ("Peuple Burkinabé"), advocate tolerance ("Djôn'maya"), and weave hymns to feminine grace ("Sabu"). The index ends with two pieces of traditional Mandingo music. This eponymous album presents all the rich heritage of Démé's repertoire to the public.