MAMOU THIERO
The siren of the “Somonos”

With an unrivalled vocal purity, Mamou Thiero incarnates all the artistic richness of her soil. After a first promising test, "Minimba", she’s about to come back on the market with another wonder: Babolo Sumu in two volumes (Djamna Baba and Kokoun Massed). A pleasant surprise that the siren of Somonos wanted to offer to her fans as a foretaste of festivals of end of the year.
Love, peace, hope, brotherhood… are values magnified by Mamou Thiero, the child of Markala, in her new opus: Babolo Sumu. A double album which will be on sale and which already prance towards the top of the hits parades. This double album is produced by Farafina production (Paris) of Saïbou Minta.
Thanks to the ingeniousness of Harouna Barry, Mamou made an impressive jump by introducing a bit of modernity into her music without losing its heart. "Harouna Barry brought much to this product on the level of arrangement. This satisfied me a lot on the level of the rhythms ", recognizes Mamou. This evolution was not done to the prejudice of her traditional sources of inspirations.
"On the level of the songs, I have more drawn from the soil of the Somonos than on the first album. My wish is to always be able to recall to rising generation the virtues of our civilization ", indicates the ambassadress of the somono culture. A beautiful voice which managed to exhort to the task the great Masters of the net, the cast-net and the hook.
"A lot of artists inspire from the “bozo” soil, but nobody can better interpret the songs of this ethnic group than Mamou Thiero. Because she knows the history of the region and the socio-cultural significance of each song. That’s what distinguishes her from the others ", indicates her arranger. And she was predestined to singing. "My mother, Awa Koné, was a star in all the loop of Niger. She was inimitable. And a soothsayer predicted my birth to her and my future career ", tells Mamou with a big nostalgia. She followed this destiny without her mother who died when she was hardly two years old and did not had the time to transmit the secrecy of the art to her daughter.
After the death of her mother, her elder brother entrusts her to someone of their family in Kayes, this explains the “khasonké” influence in some of her songs. It is only at eight years old that Mamou really appeared by the splendour of her voice. At 12 years, she is integrated in the theatre company of Markala. After some performances, she became a local star and swiped the trophies of the local and regional weeks in the category "solo song". Her fetish title "Falaw" (orphans) makes people cry and win her the admiration of the music lovers. The orchestras coveted the young revelation. The Super Biton managed to have the talent to take part with them in a biennial and tours.
Anxious to develop her own style, Mamou creates her own traditional musical group and is accompanied by Puppets to honour her multiple requests in Mali and outside. In 2003 for example, she brilliantly performed in France and in the United States during the "Folklife festival" where Mali was the main-guest. Today, she’s 43 years old and mother of three children, the descendant of Sya Yattabary (the legend of Wagadou Bida, the protective snake of Sosso) is at the top of her art. "That was not easy. Because after the tragic disappearance of my mother following a bad fate that those who were jealous of her phenomenal success have thrown to her, my father did everything to prevent me from singing. I was led to all the famous marabous of the area to put precociously an end to my career. But, nothing can be opposed to the realization of a destiny ", Mamou says. She adds at once, "all success and happiness that I have today, I owe it all to Allah and to my mother who has always been faithful and devoted to my father in spite of her notoriety and her celebrity".
She does not nourish any regret concerning this career. "Thanks to God, I provide for my needs. My family depends on me and I help my brothers and sisters to open up socially and economically. Without counting that music enabled me to travel a lot and to have many relations in Mali and throughout the world ", recognizes this enthusiastic Moslem woman poured in Coran.
Today, her greater dream is to furrow the world to promote this rich “somono” culture. After having brilliantly transformed her first test, she also expects a success of her second "baby". To the admirers, Mamou says that "music is all my life. I can make nothing else but singing. This is why I request my fans and all the music lovers to help me to live of this art by buying only legal products with stickers ".