Wasis Diop is a Senegalese musician of international renown, known for blending traditional Senegalese folk music

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

 with modern pop

Pop music

Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

 and jazz. The son of a Senegalese high official and member of the Lebou

Lebou

The Lebou are an ethnic group of Senegal, West Africa, living on the peninsula of Cap-Vert. The Lebou are primarily a fishing community, but they have a substantial business in construction supplies. They speak Wolof. Their political and spiritual capital is at Yoff, just north of Dakar...

 ethnic group, Diop left Senegal in the 1970s to study engineering in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, but once there turned to music, joining a fellow Senegalese musician, Umban Ukset, in forming the band West African Cosmos. Diop left the band in 1979 to start a solo career, and over the next decade achieved some small success, particularly in partnerships with singer Marie-France Anglade of Black Heritage, and jazz saxophonist Yasuaki Shimizu

Yasuaki Shimizu

is a composer, saxophonist and producer. He is known for his interpretations of the music of J.S. Bach, in particular the "Cello Suites 1-6" re-arranged for and performed on tenor saxophone....

. It was not until the early 1990s that his career began to take off, with the success of his first album, the soundtrack to the film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

, Hyenes

Hyènes

Hyènes is a 1992 Senegalese comedy film adaptation of the Swiss-German satirical play, "The Visit", directed by Djibril Diop Mambéty. The intimate story of love and revenge parallels a critique of neocolonialism and African consumerism...

(which had been directed by his brother, Djibril Diop Mambety

Djibril Diop Mambéty

Djibril Diop Mambéty was a Senegalese film director, actor, orator, composer and poet. Though he made only a small number of films, they received international acclaim for their original and experimental cinematic technique and non-linear, unconventional narrative style. Born to a Muslim family...

). Variety

Variety (magazine)

Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...

 described his soundtrack to 2006's Daratt

Daratt

Daratt is a 2006 film by Chadian director Mahamat Saleh Haroun.The film was one of seven films from non-Western cultures commissioned by Peter Sellars' New Crowned Hope Festival to commemorate the 250th birthday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart...

from Chad

Chad

Chad , officially known as the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west...

 as "outstanding".

More albums followed: No Sant in 1995, Toxu in 1998, and the compilation album

Compilation album

A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...

, Everything Is Never Quite Enough in 2004.

He lives in Paris and writes much of his lyrics in French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

. Among English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 speaking audiences, he is probably best known for "African Dream", a single from No Sant which narrowly missed the Top 40 in the UK Singles Chart

UK Singles Chart

The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...

, and "Everything is Never Quite Enough", which featured on the soundtrack

Soundtrack

A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...

 to the 1999 film, The Thomas Crown Affair

The Thomas Crown Affair (1999 film)

The Thomas Crown Affair is a 1999 American heist film directed by John McTiernan. The film, starring Pierce Brosnan, Rene Russo and Denis Leary, is a remake of the 1968 film of the same name....

. "Yambo," his Wolof language

Wolof language

Wolof is a language spoken in Senegal, The Gambia, and Mauritania, and is the native language of the Wolof people. Like the neighbouring languages Serer and Fula, it belongs to the Atlantic branch of the Niger–Congo language family...

 cover

Cover version

In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...

 of the Talking Heads

Talking Heads

Talking Heads were an American New Wave and avant-garde band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991. The band comprised David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison...

 song "Once in a Lifetime

Once in a Lifetime (Talking Heads song)

"Once in a Lifetime" is a song by New Wave band Talking Heads, released as the first single from their fourth studio album Remain in Light. The song was written by David Byrne, Brian Eno, Chris Frantz, Jerry Harrison, and Tina Weymouth, and produced by Eno...

", was included in a "special markets" CD

Compact Disc

The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...

, World is Africa, produced by Universal Music for Starbucks

Starbucks

Starbucks Corporation is an international coffee and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 17,009 stores in 55 countries, including over 11,000 in the United States, over 1,000 in Canada, over 700 in the United Kingdom, and...

.

Selected discography

• Hyènes (1992)

1. "Ramatu the Bird"
2. "Draman"
3. "Mambety Blues"
4. "Kaay Niu Gospel"
5. "Ramatu"
6. "Hyenes"
7. "Yande Sabaar"
8. "The Lord of the Feather"
9. "Dune"
10. "Linguere"
11. "Colobane"
12. "La Rancune"
13. "Demon Tol"
14. "Rendez-Vous"
15. "Ramatu a Capella"
16. "Ballad of the Feather"
    • No Sant (What's Your Name?) (1996)
17. "African Dream"
18. "Di Na Wo"
19. "Holaal Bu Baah"
20. "T.G.V."
21. "Ma Na"
22. "Dames Electriques"
23. "N.O.P."
24. "No Sant"
25. "Issa Thiaw"
26. "La Danse des Maures"
27. "Dem Ba Ma"
28. "SB-Le Voyageur"
    • Toxu (1998)
29. "Soweto Daal"
30. "My Son"
31. "Everything (...Is Never Quite Enough)"
32. "Que Faut-il Faire?"
33. "Toxu"
34. "Once in a Lifetime"
35. "Accident"
36. "Raï M'Bélé"
37. "After Dreaming"
38. "Julia"
39. "Mori"
40. "Samba Le Berger"
41. "Colobane - Hymne for African Unity"
    • Everything Is Never Quite Enough (2003)
42. "Le Passeur"
43. "Everything (...Is Never Quite Enough)"
44. "Ramatu"
45. "Samba le Berger"
46. "African Dream"
47. "Dem Ba Ma"
48. "Digge (Le Gong A Sonne)"
49. "Dune"
50. "Soweto Daal"
51. "Défaal Lu Wor (Once in a Lifetime)"
52. "No Sant"
53. "Kaay Niu Gospel"
54. "Julia"
55. "Holaal Bu Baah"
56. "Raï M'Bélé"
57. "Ballad of the Feather"
58. "My Son"
59. "Ma Na"
60. "Les Gueux"
    • Judu Bek (2008)
61. "So La La!"
62. "Gudi Diop"
63. "Let It Go"
64. "Kula Soxla"
65. "Anna Mou"
66. "L'Ange Djibril (Hallelujah)"
67. "Ndiago Pop"
68. "Dans L'Aréne"
69. "Judu Bék"
70. "Automobile Mobile"
71. "Galu Nobéél"
72. "Jiné Ji"
73. "Tuti Sop"