Dobet Gnahore

Ivory Coast's prodigal daughter, Dobet Gnahore, grew up around music: her father is master drummer Boni Ngahore, and she was raised in an artist village outside Abidjan that hosted his Ki-Yi Mbock company. As a kid, Gnahore immersed herself in the stuff of performance: she learned to act, dance and drum as well as sing, and that rounded education has made her a sought-after, electrifying performer. Gnahore's first project, Ano Neko, was the result of a collaboration with her husband, musician Colin Laroche de Feline, and included her father as well as other musicians from Tunisia. It also garnered Gnahore a Newcomer nomination from the BBC Radio 3 Awards for World Music. As political instability in Ivory Coast grew, Gnahore relocated to Marseilles, taking advantage of the thriving world-music scene to develop her career. She released Na Afriki in 2007 to critical acclaim, singing in more than a half-dozen African languages on the release.