Immigrés

Youssou N'Dour

album cover

A Glimpse of Early N'Dour

For years, the magnetic singer and songwriter Youssou N'Dour has been involved in two completely different recording industries. At home in Senegal, N'Dour and his Super Étoile de Dakar band make sweaty and passionate (and often live) mbalax, the rhythmic music he pioneered. N'Dour, who since the early '80s has been mentored and championed by British rocker Peter Gabriel, also creates entirely different music for export. These works are aimed at a cosmopolitan crowd and are notable for their funky, slightly more accessible beats, and follow pop-song verse-chorus outlines. Many aspiring African stars pursue similarly bifurcated strategies; N'Dour is among the few to make compelling records in both spheres.

This 1984 album, arguably his best, was recorded before N'Dour started dividing his output. Its title track was inspired by N'Dour's first visit to Paris, where he encountered many Senegalese people drawn to the city's opportunities. He was moved by the fact that these émigrés were disconnected from their African home; one lyric pleads, "Don't forget where you belong, don't cut yourselves off."

The four extended tracks of Immigrés have plenty of snappy instrumental sections, forays in which the two guitarists and multiple drummers create a combustion engine of groove. These are plenty intense by themselves, and become incandescent when N'Dour sings. His voice has been described as "angelic," but it's also got a reedy almost shrill texture, and a touch of grandmotherly worry to it. N'Dour understands its effects. He doesn't oversing, doesn't try to showboat. Whether the rhythm's running hot or moving at a more measured, ceremonial gait, he times his declarations perfectly, so that what registers is not just the words, but an otherworldly urgency. This is a voice big enough—and strong enough—to carry many dreams of Africa inside it.

Genre: World, Senegal
Released: 1984, Virgin (Reissued 2002, Stern's Music)
Key Tracks: "Pitche mi," "Immigrés/Bitim rew," "Taaw," " Badou."
F.Y.I.: N'Dour's "breakthrough" in the West came on Peter Gabriel's 1986 hit "In Your Eyes," which makes great use of his keening vocals.
Catalog Choice: Egypt
Next Stop: Salif Keita: Soro
After That: Cheikh Lô: Bambay Gueej
Book Pages: 542–543