''Folila'' is the sixth studio album by

Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mali ...

musicians

Amadou & Mariam Amadou & Mariam are a musical duo from Mali, composed of the Bamako-born couple Amadou Bagayoko (guitar and vocals) (born 24 October 1954) and Mariam Doumbia (vocals) (born 15 April 1958). Their album '' Welcome To Mali'' (2008) was nominated ...

. The title means "music" in Bambara.Tsioulcas, Anastasia
First Listen: Amadou And Mariam, 'Folila'

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

. 1 April 2012. Retrieved 30 April 2012.

Recording

''Folila'' was originally going to be two separate albums. One album was recorded in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and featured contributions from

TV on the Radio TV on the Radio (TVOTR) is an American rock band from Brooklyn, New York, formed in 2001. The band consists of Tunde Adebimpe (vocals, loops), David Andrew Sitek (guitars, keyboards, loops), Kyp Malone (vocals, guitars, bass, loops), and Jale ...

Santigold Santi White (born September 25, 1976), known professionally as Santigold (formerly Santogold), is an American singer, songwriter and record producer. '' Billboard'' presented her in 2022, saying: "Spanning punk rock, hip-hop, and dance music, S ...

Nick Zinner Nicholas Joseph Zinner (born December 8, 1974) is an American guitarist for the New York rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs and a record producer. Zinner is an accomplished photographer. Musical career Before forming the Yeah Yeahs Yeahs with Karen O and ...

Jake Shears Jake Shears (born October 3, 1978) is an American singer and songwriter. He is best known as the male lead singer of pop-rock band Scissor Sisters. Early life Shears was born in Mesa, Arizona, the son of an entrepreneur father and a Baptist moth ...

Theophilus London Theophilus Musa London (born February 23, 1987) is an American rapper and singer. A frequent collaborator of Kanye West, London was a producer on the 2022 album Donda 2 and was featured on West's 2015 single " All Day" which was nominated for sev ...

, members of

Antibalas Antibalas (Spanish for "bulletproof") is an American, Brooklyn-based afrobeat band that is modeled after Fela Kuti's Africa 70 band and Eddie Palmieri's Harlem River Drive Orchestra. Although their music generally follows the musical architectu ...

and

Bertrand Cantat Bertrand Cantat (born 5 March 1964) is a French songwriter, singer, and musician known for being the former frontman of the rock band Noir Désir. In 2003, he was proven guilty without a doubt and convicted of the murder ("murder with indirect in ...

. A second album, featuring the same set of songs, was recorded in Amadou and Mariam's hometown of

Bamako Bamako ( bm, ߓߡߊ߬ߞߐ߬ ''Bàmakɔ̌'', ff, 𞤄𞤢𞤥𞤢𞤳𞤮 ''Bamako'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Mali, with a 2009 population of 1,810,366 and an estimated 2022 population of 2.81 million. It is located on t ...

and featured a team of African artists. However, the couple decided to combine the two albums together to create ''Folila.''

Reception

''Folila'' has received generally positive reviews. On the review aggregate site

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the album has a score of 71 out of 100, indicating "Generally favorable review."Critic Reviews for Folila

. Retrieved 30 April 2012. Thom Jurek of

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

gave the album a positive review, writing "Forget prejudices about ' world music'; Folila is great music. Period."

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...

's Kyle Anderson also praised the album, writing "Though they sing in different languages, the tongue of teamwork makes for universal understanding .

Pitchfork Media ''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music publication (currently owned by Condé Nast) that was launched in 1995 by writer Ryan Schreiber as an independent music blog. Schreiber started Pitchfork while working ...

's Joe Tangari wrote: "Even if ''Folila'' is less surprising than the two albums that came before it, it still makes me look forward to seeing where they'll take this fusion next." Paste's Doug Heselgrave wrote of the guest musicians: "Musical purists may grumble that the only reason listeners first come to this album is because of the many guests that appear on it. But, really, who cares? Amadou & Mariam’s music is strong enough to stand on its own, and it’s a fair bet that people who start with ''Folila'' won’t stop listening until they’ve heard all of their albums."

BBC Music BBC Music is responsible for the music played across the BBC. The current director of music is Bob Shennan, who is also the controller of BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 6 Music, and the BBC Asian Network. Officially it is a part of the BBC's Radio o ...

's David Katz, on the other hand, was mixed on how the album was assembled, writing "If your tastes are eclectic enough, and if you can get past the factor of contriving, you are bound to love this entire album. But more selective souls may find themselves reaching for the fast-forward button, as perhaps the original plan would have yielded a more cohesive whole."

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

's Neil Spencer criticized

' and

Amp Fiddler Joseph Anthony "Amp" Fiddler is an American singer, songwriter, keyboardist, and record producer from Detroit, Michigan. His musical styles include funk, soul, dance and electronica music. He is probably best known for his contributions to the ba ...

's contributions, calling them "marginal." Summing up the album, Spencer wrote: "''Folila'', packed with western friends, mixes the inspired and mundane." The album was listed at #49 on

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

's list of the top 50 albums of 2012.50 Best Albums of 2012

. Retrieved 23 December 2012. ''Folila'' was also nominated for a

Grammy Award for Best Contemporary World Music Album The Grammy Award for Best Contemporary World Music Album was an honor presented to recording artists between 2004 and 2011 for quality contemporary world music albums. The Grammy Awards, an annual ceremony that was established in 1958 and original ...

in 2012.

Track listing

Personnel

The following people contributed to ''Folila:''Folila - Credits

. Retrieved 30 April 2012.

Mariam & Amadou

* Amadou Bagayoko - Composer, Guitar, Guitar (Electric), Vocals * Mariam Doumbia - Composer, Vocals

Additional musicians

*Yvo Abadi - bass, drums, percussion *

Tunde Adebimpe Babatunde Omoroga Adebimpe (born February 26, 1975) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, actor, director, and visual artist best known as the lead singer of the Brooklyn-based band TV on the Radio. Early life Adebimpe was born into a Nig ...

- composer, vocals *Victor Axelrod - keyboards, Wurlitzer *Stuart Bogie - tenor sax *

-composer, doum-doum, guitar, harmonica, vocals *Tony Cousins - Mastering *Baubacar Dembélé - Djembe *Boubacar Dembele - Balafon, Conga, Djembe, Doum-doum *Vieux Dembélé - Djembe *Yao Dembele - Bass, Percussion *Sidiki Diabate - Kora *Tomani Diabate - Kora *Ebony Bones - Composer, Vocals *Amp Fiddler - Keyboards *Ahmed Fofana - Bass, Flute, Keyboards *Sanogo Foussn - Doum-doum *Laurent Griffon - Bass *Antoine Halet - Collaboration, Engineer, Guitar, Guitar (Acoustic), Mixing *Bassekou Kouyate - Ngoni *Christophe Millot - Clarinet (Bass) *

- Composer, Vocals *

Kyp Malone David Kyp Joel Malone (born February 27, 1973) is an American multi-instrumentalist and member of the bands TV on the Radio, Iran, Rain Machine, and Ice Balloons. Biography Malone grew up in Moon Township, Pennsylvania and moved to New Jersey for ...

- Composer, Vocals *Manjul - Percussion *Jordan McLean - Trumpet *

- Composer, Vocals *

- Composer, Vocals *Idrissa Soumaro - Organ, Piano *Jared Tankel - Sax (Baritone) *Tanti Kouaté & Her Choir - Choir, Chorus *

- electric and acoustic guitar * Abdallah Oumbadougou - composer, vocals

Additional personnel

* Julien Bescond - A&R * Josh Grant - Engineer, Mixing * Kennie Takahashi - Mixing * Renaud Letang - Mixing * Marc Antoine Moreau - A&R, Arranger, Composer, Producer * François Morel - Design * Thomas Moulin - Assistant * Benoît Peverelli - Photography

Charts

References

External links

Nonesuch Records' page on ''Folila''
{{Authority control 2012 albums Amadou & Mariam albums Nonesuch Records albums