- Title: Live music lifts spirits in Burkina Faso's coronavirus curfew
- Date: 18th May 2020
- Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (French) OUMOU COMPAORE TALKING AFTER LISTENING TO THE CONCERT COVID LIVE ON HER PHONE SAYING: "Watching a live (performance) like this was a first for me. It was really interesting and it was just like being in the hall with the same atmosphere you have there. And seeing these dancers writhing like that as well it made me want to join them."
- Embargoed: 1st June 2020 11:07
- Keywords: COVID-19 Dicko Fils Grec Patrick Kabre coronavirus musicians go live on social media
- Location: OUAGADOUGOU, BURKINA FASO
- City: OUAGADOUGOU, BURKINA FASO
- Country: Burkina Faso
- Topics: Human-Led Feature,Human-Led Stories
- Reuters ID: LVA005CEGK3TJ
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: On stage in an empty auditorium, backed by starry lights, Patrick Kabre plucks his electric guitar and sings through a microphone to an audience many miles away.
Kabre is contributing to COVID-Live, a series of sessions by musicians broadcast in real time on Facebook to people across Burkina Faso who have been under curfew for months.
The aim is to bring some relief, in the form of song and dance, to one of the world's least developed countries, where the new coronavirus is spreading fast and a lack of resources means medical facilities are overstretched.
Singing 'Moaga' on stage in Ouagadougou's CENESA hall Kabre performs before rows of empty seats, one camera operator and a sound engineer his only live audience.
"To play in an empty hall is also a real challenge. But at the same time, it is something we have always done because imagine that when we compose or when we are creating, we are always imagining that we are in front of the public, or when we compose we are always inside ourselves. So I think that is what I did. I told myself I was playing for myself, being sincere and I think I was also sincere with those who were following me," Kabre said.
Sitting in her living room sofa, Oumou Compaore watched the whole show live on her phone. She said it felt just like being there.
"This was a first for me. It was really interesting and it was just like being in the hall with the same atmosphere you have there. And seeing these dancers writhing like that as well it made me want to join them," Compaore said.
Each artist played three songs. Dicko Fils, another beloved singer of Burkinabes, performed alongside dancers on stage which got Compaore and her niece up on their feet whilst her neighbour danced on the edge of the sofa.
Saturday was the third Covid-Live session and the series is the brain child of three young promoters who wanted to keep music alive as well as help their audience survive weeks of confinement. Many of the artists have had to cancel their tours because of the pandemic and people have been living under curfew in Ouagadougou since March. One of the promoters, Isouf Balima, said his model for the show was one of "resistance and resilience" to the virus.
Jihadist and communal violence has been spiralling in the region hitting the Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger triangle particularly hard for the last two years. On March 9 unidentified assailants killed at least 43 people in raids on villages in the north of Burkina Faso, one of the deadliest attacks for a year. Hundreds of civilians have been killed in the Sahel since 2019 and hundreds of thousands have been displaced raising concerns from aid agencies who fear the pandemic will worsen the refugee crisis.
For the past two years Kabre has organised a festival of music to 'silence weapons' known as 'Salon Musique' which brings musicians and bands inside people's homes, gardens and neighbourhoods to build solidarity and bring respite from the trauma of the conflict.
Kabre said the spirit of COVID-Live is much the same helping people regain a bit of happiness in trying times and whilst keeping music alive.
"The idea is to turn all our projects into little joys, which together bring great joy," Kabre said.
The organisers hope to get as many as 50 artists in total to perform on Covid-Live with the help of the ministry of culture the Burkina Artists Association (BBDA) and some benefactors who have set aside more than 1 billion Francs CFA ($1.5 million) to help the arts and culture.
The organisers also hope to recoup their costs from the sale of the COVID-Live recordings in the future.
(Production: Thiam Ndiaga, Yvonne Bell) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2020. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None