In 2019, Vanity Fair called French Malian singer Aya Nakamura “the most influential French musician in the world”. And she’s continued in that vein ever since.
With her mix of urban and Afropop sounds, street slang from the banlieues, or suburbsof northern Paris, the 25-year-old singer has had hit after hit over the last three years.
Her latest song “Jolie Nana” (pretty chick) looks set to become the summer hit.
The video has been viewed more than six million times since it was posted on YouTube mid-July.
Nakamura’s fan base stretches beyond France, to Romania, The Netherlands and several Latin American countries.
Nakamura was born Aya Danioko in Mali in 1995, into a family of Griots, West African storytellers and praise singers.
Her own stories have seemingly little to do with the African continent, and everything to do with growing up in the working class multi-racial banlieues north of Paris.
Her songs talk about relationships, flirting and female friendships.
She sings in French but with her own lingo, incorporating expressions from English, Arabic and the Bambara of her Malian parents.
Source: RFI
