The blind singers from Mali, Amadou & Mariam, will be back in the Bay Area for the first time in four years. They met while riding the bus to blind school and eventually married and started performing. They will also be at the Catalyst in Santa Cruz, but not for free.

For the past forty-odd years, Amadou & Mariam have managed to joyfully combine their love story with a musical career while becoming the most famous ambassadors for Malian music, and African music, all around the world. Amadou & Mariam have collaborated with many different people and worked with producers that seem far removed from their universe, like Damon Albarn of Blur or Manu Chao. They have invited the best artists who are building tomorrow’s pop music to play on their naïve and lively songs (Santigold, TV On The Radio, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs) and have had their tracks remixed by Yuksek, Vitalic, Henrik Schwarz, Miike Snow and Ashley Beedle, leading the songs to the dance floor and underlining their intrinsically danceable quality. They’ve played the world’s biggest festivals, from Coachella to Glastonbury, and opened for huge bands such as Coldplay and the Scissor Sisters.
By enriching their Afro-pop with new pigments and introducing to the world the richness and subtleties of African music, the duo has brought African music to the charts and to the dance floor. They’ve inspired many artists to mix Afro and electro sounds, such as MHD, DJ Mujava, Awesome Tapes From Africa, Four Tet and Jamie xx. This is proof that in the 80s certain crazy minds had fantasies of a Sono Mondiale, and Amadou & Mariam are the ones who have made it a reality.