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  • Youssou N'Dour's reggae album

    A quiet corner of the 13th arrondissement. In the factory across the road, France’s state tapestries are woven. On this side, in a plush underground recording studio, weaving of a different kind is going on. Tyrone Downie, a veteran reggae producer, and Timour Cardenas, his engineer, are listening intently to playbacks, occasionally sprinkling some echo on to the lead vocal or frowning at particular pieces of phrasing.

    The singer himself buzzes at the intercom and wanders down from the Rue du Reine Blanche in a stripy jumper and black beanie hat. It is a low-key entrance for a major-league star: Youssou N’Dour, the Senegalese singer, activist, aspirant television mogul and, perhaps, future politician.

    For more than 30 years, N’Dour has been at the forefront of Senegalese music. Mbalax, the fast, snappy dance music he invented and named as a teenager with Étoile de Dakar, has become the country’s dominant musical form. His international solo career started in 1984 with Immigrés, which he recorded in Paris at the behest of the Senegalese Taxi Drivers’ Association. It led to collaborations with Peter Gabriel and Paul Simon, and a series of albums for big labels. “Seven Seconds”, his duet with Neneh Cherry, a huge hit throughout the world, is the bestselling record by a Senegalese musician.

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