Salimata
Diakité "Djagbawara"
Le Mag, the weekly magazine which informs you about the life of artists,
has met Djagbawara Sali, the one who bet to give a new impulsion to
the Wassoulou music in Studio Bogolan. She accepted to confide to
the mag.
Mag:
you’ve just finished recording your next album at the studio
Bogolan, why have you waited for four long years to make album?
Djagbawara Sali: we just took our time to make a good work. It’s
my fourth album and any time I make a new album, the circle of my
fans becomes larger. There’s no need to make an album every
years when you are not sure that it’ll be successful. Moreover,
Daga Kolon goes on being broadcasted on the radio as if it just has
been released.
To
yours says, it seems that you earned a lot of money with Daga Kolon?
Not obligatory, in Mali, it’s very difficult to sell a lot of
products because of the piracy. Personally, I prefer good work to
money. My first album was produced by Samassa records, the second
by Amadou Cissé, Daga Kolon was produced by Mali k7, the next
also. All this producers will tell you that my most important demand
is the conditions of work. Everybody has a chance in life and to catch
this chance, you must first make a good work.
Is
it because you haven’t made an auto-production that you say
that?
Djagbawara Sali: not at all, the artists, the distributors and even
the producers are all bothered by piracy. Artists made their songs
with the hope that measures will be taken against piracy. The distributors
hope to make profit of their sales. Although, we are obliged to go
on making our fans dream, advice them, console them and with the same
occasion, give our contribution to the build of the country, even
if here in Mali, artists live of anxiety.
Let’s
talk about you next album? Did you stay in the same style?
Do you mean the Djagbawara? We should not change people already like.
Maybe just the ideas have evolved with music. About the next album,
there are ten tracks with only one song in Soninke. We have also added
N’tamani to improve the rhythmical coloration. Nevertheless,
we keep the Djagbawara as the musical base.
What themes do your songs deal with?
My songs deal with girls schooling, with our army, with the difficulties
women have in their search of economical, social and cultural integration…
and social problems.
A
lot of artists sing about women, love but their daily behaviour does
not reflect the convictions they say in their songs. Do you sing by
conviction?
The thing I really regret today is the fact that I haven’t been
schooled. I cannot read nor write but I have opinions about the problems
of the nation. I understand what’s happening around me, I try
to analyse and bring my contribution. You know we use to say: “do
what I say, don’t do what I do”. There are a lot of examples.
For my part, I sing what I feel as nobody composes my songs in my
place.
Let’s
talk again about piracy?
I have no miraculous solution because my work is just to sing. All
I can say is that this struggles is not properly and rigorously led.
How can you understand that years after years, the rate of piracy
is growing? You can try and look in the boxes of the itinerant sellers
and you’ll see by yourself that there are not even two legal
tapes. Sometimes I doubt that stickers have serve in the struggle
against piracy. 
We
want to go on making music but we must live first.
The
word of the end…
I’m very happy of this first contract of three albums with Mali
k7.i praise God because an artist without a good producer will never
have success how huge his talent is. I’d like to say thank you
to all the people of the Arts National Institute of Bamako and all
the people who helped me to realise this album. I call on the authorities,
he members of the Malian Authors Rights Office to unite with us to
fight against piracy; the mission is difficult but not impossible.
I invite the music lovers to change their habits, the piracy kill
the creation, the talent and the will. The next album is being mixed
and will be on sale in October 2003. I count on music lovrs and fan
to secure it success and promotion. I’m sure you will like it.
Laban
soon in Europe
After the fabulous number of sale in Mali (“Gold tape”
given by Mali k7 SA), the latest album “Laban “of Oumou
Sangare, will be soon in sale in Europe and America. This sumptuous
album is produced by World Circuit. The producer had first thought
the product not good enough to be sold outside but he found a good
deal with the star of the Wassoulou when he came in Bamako in June.
Laban will then be on sale in Europe and America at the beginning
of October 2003. if this rumour happen to be rue, the release of Laban
on international market will permit to re-launch the carrier of the
star, who confided ten days ago on a stranger magazine that she suffered
so much in her lie that she had to eat in dustbins.
“Les
Go du Kotéba” also
Is Bamako becoming the capital of African show-biz? After the brilliant
show of the lady of Beledougou at the Babemba, the return of Cheick
Tidiane Seck at the Congress Palace, “les Go du Kotéba”
also had success in their passage in Bamako. It was on Friday 4th
of July 2003 at the French cultural centre in Bamako. A show that
proved, if need was, that “les Go du Kotéba” have
not lost their youth and liveliness on stage. She haven’t made
a spectacle in Bamako since 96-97. This stay in Bamako permitted the
Go (Awa and Maté) to make the promotion of their new album
Dan Gna which has been put on sale by Mali k7 a few days before the
concert. The album has twelve tracks and is on sale everywhere in
the country on tapes and CDs.
www.mali-music.com
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