The UK's largest free celebration of African music and culture returns to Liverpool this weekend - it's almost time for AFRICA OYE .
Now in its 24th year, Africa Oye started out as
a series of small gigs in the city centre, and now it is a full blown two-day
festival at Sefton
Park , and it returns for 2016 on 18-19 June.
Here's how the musical line-up is looking for
both days of this year's Africa Oye festival.
Saturday 18
June
RIMKA
Developed in Liverpool but rooted in Senegal,
RIMKA produce a unique blend of afro-jazz, sabar-beat and mbalax.
Driven by the mesmerising sabar beats of Karim
Mbaye, RIMKA produce music to make you jump up and dance.
XAM VOLO
Xam Volo
performs at the 2016 International Mersey River Festival. Picture by Jason
Roberts.
Having already wowed audiences at the Mersey
River Festival earlier this month, Xam Volo is back to take to the Africa
Oye stage.
The 21-year-old London native has been based in
the city since 2012, and he describes his sound as "a messy mind over raw,
dark jazz grooves".
IFA BAND
Hailing from the streets of Tanzania, Ifa Band
are a nomadic group who magically create their music using broken cymbals and
bass guitars made from washing lines.
Fronted by blind guitarist Jafari Rashid Igomba,
the group blend Rumba with Bongo Flava, and they've gone from busking their way
around Tanzania to playing the UK's biggest free African festival.
WESLI
Born in Haiti, Wesli (real name Wesley
Louissaint) made his first guitar out of an oil can and a nylon shoelace when
he was just eight years old.
Now residing in Canada, Wesli creature music
that captures the heart of his audience, using complex musical arrangements and
messages of hope, truth and peace.
DAMILY
Tongobory-born Damily is considered to be one of
the pioneers of 'Tsapiky' - a Malagasy genre that can trace its origins back to
the 1980s, when the electric guitar first arrived on the island.
For the past three decades, Damily and his
eponymous band have been taking their audiences on a discovery of the rhythmic
and charming music known as Tsapiky.
SONA JOBARTEH
Sona Jobarteh has completely modernised Kora
music - she is the first female Kora artist to come from a West African Griot
family.
The ancient, male-dominated tradition is one
that has been passed down from father to son for seven centuries, but now Sona
has emerged as part of a modernised Kora music movement, bringing a rhythmic
edge to her music.
PAT THOMAS & KWASHIBU AREA BAND
Hailed as the Golden Voice of Africa, Pat Thomas
has a unique tone that comes from the Fanti and Ashanti Twi dialects of the
Akan language.
Together with the Kwashibu Area Band, Pat comes
to Africa Oye with his sound that updates the afrobeat vocals and rhythmic
music that rose to prominence in West Africa during the 70s.
SUNDAY 19
JUNE
SHERII VEN DYERSherii Ven Dyer is a singer-songwriter that fully embraces her Indian, Cuban and Jamaican heritage.
Nicknamed the Vocal Fire-Cracker, Sherii counts
her main influences as Aretha Franklin, Minni Ripperton, The Jones Girls and
Prince.
AFRICA OYE
2016
MAMADOU AND THE SUPER LIBIDOR BAND
Mamadou Diaw is a singer, songwriter and drummer
from Senegal, specialising in a sound that blends jazz, funk and Senegalese
mbalax.
Having toured Africa with some of the biggest
musicians of the day through the 90s, Mamadou came to Europe in 1996, and has
since set up the Super Libidor Band.
RANDY VALENTINE
This versatile singer, songwriter and producer
hails from the countryside of Clarendon in Jamaica, and Randy's career has been
flying since the release of his EP Bring Back the Love in 2012.
His 2013 tour was the biggest ever tour for a
debut reggae artist, and his second EP, released last year, went straight to
the top of the iTunes reggae charts.
BILAN
Born on the island of Sao Vicente in Cape Verde,
Bilan moved to Portugal in 1999 to study - it is here that he recorded his
first two albums.
This resulted in him touring Portugal for many
years, playing with musicians of varied origins and musical styles, all of
which helped him to shape his own sound.
BALOJI
Baloji is a poet, composer, lyricist,
scriptwriter, actor and performer - truly a man of many talents.
In terms of his musical output, Bajoli embraces
everything from African music and afro-american sounds such as soul, funk and
jazz, to rap, hip hop and electric trance.
AKALAAkala has emerged from London's underground scene to become of the leaders of a British hip hop renaissance.
He made history by being the first unsigned
artist to have a video featured on MTV's TRL, and he was named Best Hip Hop
Artist at the 2006 MOBOs.
MBONGWANA STAR
If you head to see Mbongwana Star at Africa Oye
on Sunday, prepare to have any and all of your misconceptions about African
music blown away.
Made up of former members of Staff Benda Bilili,
the band combine socially and politically charged lyrics with a sound that
blends electro-rock, soukous and everything in
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