Fatoumata Diawara

	Chart positions ; Explanation of the data
	Singles
	(Douha) Mali Mali (with Disclosure )

Rudolstadt Festival 2018

Fatoumata Diawara (* 1982 in Ivory Coast ) is a Malian singer-songwriter and actress .

Life

Diawara first spent her childhood in Abidjan with her parents, who led a dance troupe in which she also performed. When she was twelve she was sent to live with an aunt in Bamako . Through her aunt, an actress, she got access to the theater environment. The filmmaker Cheick Oumar Sissoko engaged her in 1997 for his film La Genèse, in which she played the leading female role alongside Salif Keïta . In the film Sìa: le rêve du python she took on the title role ('Sia'). Then she worked in France. At the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris , she played in Jean-Louis Sagot-Duvauroux's adaptation of Antigone. From 2002 she worked for the Compagnie Royal de luxe for several years . In 2006 she played the leading female role in the Opéra du Sahel, the first opera to be premiered in Bamako. Further roles in musical theater and in films followed.

She also sang on albums by Dee Dee Bridgewater (Red Earth), Oumou Sangaré (Seya) and Herbie Hancock (The Imagine Project) . In 2011 she recorded the first album under her own name, which was followed in 2015 as a collaboration with Roberto Fonseca (which was created at the Jazz Festival in Marciac in 2014 ) At Home . Diawara can also be heard on albums by Bobby Womack , Mulatu Astatke , Cheikh Lô , the Orchester Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou , Blick Bassy and Rocket Juice & the Moon . In 2013 she received the Africa Festival Award at the Africa Festival Würzburg for her commitment in Mali and her extraordinary musical talent .