Every Friday, The World Africa presents three new musical releases from or inspired by the continent. This week, as the festival season opens in France, we have selected three events which give a special place to African artists: direction Toulouse with Rio Loco, Marseille with Africa Fête and Arles with Les Suds.
ElGrandeToto, in Toulouse
For his 29e edition, entitled “Odyssea”, the Toulouse Rio Loco festival has chosen to build bridges between the two shores of the Mediterranean. From June 12 to 16, artists from Spain, Greece, Turkey and North Africa will make the Filters meadow, on the banks of the Garonne, vibrate.
The Maghreb will be particularly well represented, with the Tunisians Nuri and Ammar 808, the Franco-Algerian collective Acid Arab, the Berber-Toulouse group Tiwiza or, on the Moroccan side, the show “Aïta mon amour” and the DJ Guedra Guedra… But c t is on Thursday June 13 that the ambition of the festival will take on its full scope with a rap evening entitled “From Casa to the planet Mars” and bringing together the Moroccan ElGrandeToto, star in the Arab world with nearly 3 million monthly listeners on Spotify, Marseillais Soso Maness and Toulouse Don Choa.
Studio Shap Shap, in Marseille
In Marseille, the Africa Fête festival will celebrate its 20th anniversary, from June 18 to 22, at Friche la Belle de Mai. Founded by Mamadou Konté, a former immigrant worker who became a key figure in African musical production and who died in 2007, the event also takes place regularly in Senegal.
The programming, certainly much more modest than that of Rio Loco – the festival team evoking “drastic cuts in budgets and subsidies” –, is headlined by the Malians of Bamba Wassoulou Groove, who will be joined in particular by the South African singer Bongi (based in Marseille) and the Nigerian collective Studio Shap Shap, which combines rare traditional instruments with electronic sounds. A sweet madness that we can see at work in the music video for the song THANKS, taken from his first EP, The modern world, published in 2022.
Sami Galbi, in Arles
We stay in Bouches-du-Rhône with the Les Suds festival, in Arles, which will take place from July 8 to 14. Rich in around twenty concerts and DJ sets, the program offers some forays into African music, whether well-marked routes with the Ivorian Tiken Jah Fakoly, undisputed master of reggae on the continent, or paths crossing with the group Twende Pamoja, which brings together the French violinist Théo Ceccaldi, the Ugandan DJ Faizal Mostrixx, the Tanzanian singer Kadilida and the Nigerian rapper Aunty Rayzor.
Another concert not to be missed: that of the Franco-Moroccan Sami Galbi, on July 13, in the courtyard of the archbishopric. Author, composer and performer who does not lack second degree – the music video for Dakchi Hani As evidenced by this, the Swiss-based artist revisits the raï and chaabi of his childhood in a disco style.
Read also | Afrobeat without borders: the musical selection of “World Africa” #190
Add to your selections
Find all of the editorial staff’s musical favorites in the YouTube playlist of World Africa.
In Paris, the Cabaret Sauvage and IMA festivals
In June, Paris will also vibrate to the rhythm of African music. First at Cabaret Sauvage (19e arrondissement), which will host a Summer Festival from June 11 to 16 during which several artists linked to the continent are scheduled, such as the kamele ngoni player Sîan Pottok, the Swiss-Algerian singer Flèche Love, the Tuareg group Imarhan and the kora player Cherif Soumano Mamadou.
Then at the Arab World Institute (IMA, 5e arrondissement), from June 13 to 20, with the Arabofolies festival, which this year places a particular emphasis on Tunisia through the duo Yuma, the trio Bénarès and the singer Slim Ben Ammar. The complete programs can be found on the websites of the two events.
