Elisabeth Finant (9 November 1954 – 28 September 1994), known professionally as Abeti Masikini, was a singer from the Belgian Congo who was active in France from 1971 until her death in 1994 at the age of 39. Her music pulled from a variety of genres, including

soukous Soukous (from French '' secousse'', "shock, jolt, jerk") is a genre of dance music from Congo-Kinshasa and Congo-Brazzaville. It derived from Congolese rumba in the 1960s, becoming known for its fast dance rhythms and intricate guitar improv ...

Congolese rumba Congolese rumba is a popular genre of dance music that originated in the Congo basin during the 1940s, deriving from Cuban son. The style gained popularity throughout Africa during the 1960s and 1970s. It is known as Lingala in Kenya, Uganda, ...

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

, and the

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

. She recorded 21 albums during her career for a variety of record labels including

RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also A ...

and

Polygram Records PolyGram N.V. was a multinational entertainment company and major music record label formerly based in the Netherlands. It was founded in 1962 as the Grammophon-Philips Group by Dutch corporation Philips and German corporation Siemens, to be a ...

among others.

Biography

Masikini was born on 9 November 1954 in Stanleyville,

Belgian Congo The Belgian Congo (french: Congo belge, ; nl, Belgisch-Congo) was a Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960. The former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in 1964. Colo ...

as a daughter of politician

Jean-Pierre Finant Jean-Pierre Finant (22 April 1922 – 13 February 1961) was a Congolese politician who served as the first President of Orientale Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (then Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville), Republic of the Congo) f ...

. She died on 28 September 1994 in

Villejuif Villejuif () is a commune in the southern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. Name The earliest reference to Villejuif appears in a bill signed by the Pope Callixtus II on 27 November 1119. It refers to Villa Ju ...

, France, from cancer.

Bibliography

References

1954 births 1994 deaths 20th-century French women singers Belgian Congo people 20th-century Democratic Republic of the Congo women singers People from Val-de-Marne People from Kisangani Soukous musicians French folk singers French blues singers {{France-singer-stub