Balla Sidibé (1942 – July 29, 2020) was a Senegalese singer,

bandleader A bandleader is the leader of a music group such as a dance band, rock or pop band or jazz quartet. The term is most commonly used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhyth ...

, percussionist, vocalist and composer. A founding member of the popular vocal group

Orchestra Baobab Orchestra Baobab is a Senegalese band established in 1970 as the house band of the Baobab Club in Dakar. Many of the band's original members had previously played with Star Band de Dakar in the 1960s. Directed by '' timbalero'' and vocalist Ball ...

, Sidibé was responsible for composing many of the band's best known standards and is regarded by many, as the giant of African music.

Biography

Sidibé was born in the

Casamance Casamance is the area of Senegal south of the Gambia, including the Casamance River. It consists of the Lower Casamance (, —i.e. Ziguinchor Region) and the Upper Casamance (, —i.e. Kolda and Sédhiou Regions). The largest city of Casamance ...

Senegal Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...

in 1942. He abandoned an earlier career with the

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to become a musician and started performing around Dakar, the capital of Senegal in the mid-60s where he started his career. In 1970, Sidibé met with the other front men of The Orchestra Baobab at the Baobab Club in

Dakar Dakar ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Senegal, largest city of Senegal. The Departments of Senegal, department of Dakar has a population of 1,278,469, and the population of the Dakar metropolitan area was at 4.0 mill ...

where they started as a house band. During his long career as a musician, he collaborated with Balla et ses Balladins,

Youssou N'Dour Youssou N'Dour (, ; also known as Youssou Madjiguène Ndour; born 1 October 1959) is a Senegalese singer, songwriter, musician, composer, occasional actor, businessman, and politician. In 2004, ''Rolling Stone'' described him as, "perhaps the m ...

Bembeya Jazz National Bembeya Jazz National (originally known as Orchestre de Beyla) is a Guinean music group that gained fame in the 1960s for their Afropop rhythms. They are considered one of the most significant bands in Guinean music. Many of their recordings are ba ...

, Keletigui et ses Tambourinis, and

Aurelio Martínez Aurelio Martínez Suazo (26 September 1969 – 17 March 2025), professionally known as Aurelio, was a Honduran singer-songwriter and politician. Known for his Garifuna music, he was considered a cultural ambassador of the Garifuna people. Accor ...

. Sidibé has been credited for composing and arranging many of the Orchestra Baobab studio albums like ''Pirate's Choice'', '' Specialist in All Styles, Authenticité/The Syliphone Years, Vol. 1, A Night at Club Baobab, La Belle Epoque, Vol. 2, La Belle Epoque, Tribute to Ndiouga Dieng, and La Belle Epoque, Vol. 3: 1973-1976.'' He was signed to

World Circuit Records The world is the totality of entities, the whole of reality, or everything that exists. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique, while others talk of a "plu ...

before his death in 2020.

Death

On July 29, 2020,

and Orchestra Baoba announced the death of Sidibé on

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

. According to the band, he was rehearsing new material with the group a day before his death. He died in Dakar, Senegal.

References

External links

Balla Sidibé
at

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sidibé, Balla 1942 births 2020 deaths Senegalese musicians People from Casamance