Soul, jazz, afrobeat, reggae, folk, ...

Her music is so rich, but at the same time reflects so much simplicity. The same is with her background. She is a child of a Nigerian father and a Romani Gypsy mother, raised in Germany. She has a multicultural ethnicity, but she is so plain and open with her looks, voice and music. She catches you in the first note.

Her name means joy in the Nigerian Yoruba language. Joy is what she is seeking, and what she wants to give as you can understand from the title of her debut album "Joyful" in 2006. Her albums represent her life experiences. With her second album "Gravity at last" she gives us another message of stability.

Ayo and her guitar act like one, on any performance, with a dialogue that seems more than real. You must listen to Ayo. Especially her live performance!
Although she has only two albums it was difficult for me to choose from her videos to publish in this post. They are all so good! Happy listening...

Visit:
Ayo's official website
Ayo @ myspace
Ayo @ banana republic

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Dengue Fever, the group singing Cambodian Psych Rock, is a six member band, a Cambodian lady and six guys from L.A., making music influenced from the sixties Cambodian rock songs, as you can experience if you listen to the songs they covered in their first debut album "Dengue Fever" released in 2003. They have released 5 albums to date and using the same style they have produced more original songs. The theme of singing songs in Cambodian is very original and adds a different taste.







Further Reading:
Dengue Fever @ myspace
Dengue Fever @ wikipedia
Dengue Fever @ National Geographic world music

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What a lovely voice and creatively attractive style! This French lady born to a French academic family, has fluent English and studied political science previous her music career. While singing at jazz clubs in France, she also started acting with the film Les Morsures de l'Aube, for which she also contritributed to the soundtrack. In 2002 she released her first album Le Sac des Filles by Virgin Records. In 2005 came her second album Le Fil with an avant garde concept of a a string (le fil) to be a drone that continued throughout the album. The only instruments used in this album were bass, double base and keyboards, encompanied only by explorative vocal sounds. In 2007 she took part in the soundtrack of Pixar's aniation film Ratatouille, with the leading song Le Festin. Last year in 2008 she released her last album Music Hole.

For her inspirational and creative work she has received 5 awards including the Prix Constantin, 3 awards at the Victoires de la musique , and European world music winner from BBC Radio 3.

This lady has caught my ears and sight at a note and a glance. Even though I don't know French, I immediately understand that her work is very deeply conceptual, and her voice and music is very good, even better than most recent artists I've heard in the last decade. She is definitely worth listening to and watching.

Further Reading:
Camille's Music Hole
Camille's Le fil

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Manu Chao, a French singer of Spanish origin sings in many languages; Spanish, French, English, Arabic, and Portuguese and some other languages. This multi language singer first started his musical career with the French band "Hot Pants", making music with multiple styles. He then formed the group "Mano Negra" in 1987, but because of politic reasons left the group in 1995. He then went solo and formed a new group, "Radio Bemba Sound System". With this group he made a steady rise in his career releasing his albums Clandestino, Próxima Estación: Esperanza, and La Radiolina.
He mixes many styles such as punk, rock, reggae, ska, the French chanson and even Algerian raï. His songs are mostly about love, immigration and politics, and some songs have a left wing message.
Although this talented artist is one of the world's best selling, he is not that well known in the English speaking countries.
I expect to listen to more of his work, and hope to see him on tour soon.





Further Reading:
Manu Chao Official Website
http://www.myspace.com/manuchao

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