MBOYO MBILIA, AFRICAN STAR
"pirates kill music"

MBilia, the elegant Congolese with the exciting rhythm, is back. Belissimo! is the name of her new album. The 16th of a brilliant career started about twenty years ago.

Belissimo is an opus of ten titles produced by Syllart Production. Mali K7 ensures the distribution in Mali. As always, the Congolese star found her inspiration in love. She was recently present in Mali to take part in the international Festival of music in Mali (Fimba, 18 to November 21, 2004) and for the promotion of her album. A very engaged opus with titles such as Right to love "dedicated to the children of the world". This superb duet with Kandia Kouyaté denounces the ill treatments, the worst forms of exploitation of which children are victims in the world, especially in Africa. "Everyone recognizes that the children constitute the future of a nation, but few people act to protect them", she says. Titles like Lovango (this love), Ambiance à gogo, Belissimo... are also real lessons of wisdom and social satyr.
Revelation of the Eighties by the sides of Tabu Ley, MBoyo MBilia "Bel" (fear and fascination) always bathed in the world of music. Her maternal grandfather was a great griot and her grandmother an unbeatable dancer. From the first she inherited the vocal beauty and she owes her grace of tiger on scene to at the second. The career of MBilia is a history of television which started when she was 8 years old. "Once, I saw Bela Bello (the late Togolese star) on television during one of her stays in Kinshasa. I was immediately charmed by her talent, her beautiful voice and her beauty. I then swore to myself to become like her... It is my idol. When she died, I spent several days crying... ", explains the star of the rumba. 7 years later, she sees late Abéti Massekini on TV! The emotional shock is so big that she does not resist the temptation to write to her in order to benefit from her framing. She’s very surprised when Abéti sends her agent to fetch her. "My dream to become a singer thus started to fulfil. It was incredible ", she remember. "Abéti was a formidable woman. As chorus-singer, I learned a lot of thing by her sides in four years ", she recognises.
she leaves Abéti for Sam Mangwana who discovered her during a musical show on the Zairian TV. With this one, she travels through the world during one year. She decides afterwards to mark a pause. "It was not what I wanted. I wanted to express my feelings... I thought that I would maybe never have such an opportunity. I then decided to drop all and to learn shorthand typing ", she remembers. The training lasts only a few months. Because meanwhile, Tabu Ley falls under her charm during a television broadcast. The voice of MBilia seldom leaves indifferent. "At our first meeting, Rochereau said to me: I do not have a billion to give you, but if you agree to work with me you will never regret it ", MBoyo tells us. And she had not regret only a few successful titles made the chorus-singer becomes a real star. "That started with MBevéalongue, the lament of a woman who was abandonned with her children by a husband who however was always praising her beauty and her merits. Many women recognised themselves in this song and took me in sympathy ", remembers the artist. Cadence Mundada comes to consolidate this first success and hoists the young singer at the top of the hits. The idyll lasts a little more than six years. Then it is separation. A rupture which made a lot of ink and saliva flow. "people told many lies. I think that it is not wise to mix with the love life of people. Rochereau was a formidable Master for me. In my opinion, it is the best composer of rumba. But, it was necessary that one day I learn how to fly with my own wings to realize my ambitions ", explains MBilia. She keeps good relations with the father of her daughter, Mélodie Tabu (18 years, present in chorus on Belissimo). "I owe him much in my success. I am proud to have been at his school. And I am sure also that Tabu Ley is proud of me because he has always considered me as the best product of his school ", she tells us. About forty, MBilia Bel do not want to linger over this past because she is resolutely turned towards the future. That passes by the promotion of this 16th album. She especially wishes to undertake, very soon, a West African tour where her fans are very numerous. Meanwhile, she asks them to help the artists to fight piracy. "This plague is comparable to an atomic bomb which breaks the careers and condemns the talents to precariousness. The pirates kill us because, generally, music is our only mean to win our bread ", said the sunbeam of the Congolese music.

Prix RFI Musiques du Monde
It is this Thursday that the finale of Prix RFI Musiques du Monde will take place in the French Arts centre of Bamako This final which will oppose Idrissa Soumaoro of Mali, Abdou Guité Seck of Senegal and Ba Cissoko of Guinea will be rich in colors. It is useless to tell you that our hearts beat for our compatriot Idrissa. After so much of years at the service of music, he deserves the dedication for a first try. The verdict we wait impatiently will be known on next Thursday, December 2. Good luck to them all!