JAPAN: Senegalese super star Youssou N'Dour rocks Japan with music and a message for Africa

Record ID: 465186

  • Title: JAPAN: Senegalese super star Youssou N'Dour rocks Japan with music and a message for Africa
  • Date: 10th August 2006
  • Summary: AUDIENCE AFTER CONCERT BUYING N'DOUR AND AFRICAN PRODUCTS (SOUNDBITE)(Japanese) JUNKO HANDA, 29, LAW FIRM SECRETARY, SAYING: "His songs were all cheerful. Everybody was sitting when the concert started but we all naturally stood up and - although i didn't know how to dance - my body just started moving by itself and that was a lot of fun." (SOUNDBITE)(Japanese) MITSUE KUWAE, 50 YEAR OLD, CONCERT-GOER, SAYING: "It was the rhythm and sound that almost gush out of your heart. It doesn't feel artificial. It's something that rocks your soul."
  • Embargoed: 25th August 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Japan
  • Country: Japan
  • Topics: Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVA2UKR86NE3F1A6S1JKMCQOOXRD
  • Story Text: One of Africa's top superstars, Youssou N'Dour, took the stage in Tokyo on Saturday (August 5,) bringing the continent's lively music and humanitarian music to Asia.
    Youssou N'Dour is one of Africa's most celebrated musicians. Originally from Senegal and born a griot (a west African hereditary caste of musicians) he began singing when he was 12. By blending his country's colourful singing with Afro-Cuban arrangements and Caribbean tunes he developed a popular form of African music that transcended national boundaries.
    Youssou N'Dour and his ensemble "Le Super Etoile de Dakar" (The Super Star of Dakar) he has been the face of African music for the last 20 years.
    However his music is not widely known in Japan. African culture is usually a distance curiosity for many Japanese. That, however, did not prevent his two day Tokyo concerts at the 2,000 seater downtown International Forum from been packed with a enthusiastic audience.
    "His songs were all cheerful. Everybody was sitting when the concert started but we all naturally stood up and - although I didn't know how to dance - my body just started moving by itself and that was a lot of fun," said 29 year old Junko Handa who had never heard Youssou N'Dour's music until this concert.
    "It was the rhythm and sound that almost gush out of your heart. It doesn't feel artificial. It's something that rocks your soul," added 50 year old Mitsue Kuwae.
    But despite the cheer and flamboyance of N'Dour's music, he is also touring the world with a cause.
    "I realised one day that I could do more. I started music when I was really young. So I realised I could do more and do something over and above my music, do more than just go home everyday -- I could send messages everytime something hurt me. And I think that even if I touch one person with my messages so they can change their attitude -- I think its necessary," he told a press conference at the United Nation's Tokyo headquarters the day before his concerts on Friday (August 4).
    As Goodwill Ambassador to UNICEF, Youssou has taken up various African causes including AIDS prevention, Women's rights in African and the fight against malaria.
    "This is what we need in Africa. A lot, a lot, a lot of media (about this)," he said as he showed the press in Japan a mosquito net.
    "Lot of people following Japan announcement. I think we really really need more, more from Japan definitely and we need to mobilize the world, the rich countries because of this problem -- this is very important," he added.
    More than one million people die from malaria every year, almost 90 percent are in Africa. The disease is most deadly for children under five, killing one child every 30 seconds.
    The Global Fund, launched in 2002, makes up about two thirds of world-wide financing to prevent and treat malaria, and is the main financier of developing countries' scale-up of artemisinin-based combination drugs -- known as ACTs.
    But the most effective way to fight malaria is believed to be distributing mosquito nets to the poor of Africa.
    A family owned Tanzanian company, A to Z Textile Mills Ltd, teamed up with Japan's Sumitomo Chemical to become the first factory in Africa to use new technology that makes long-lasting nets treated with insecticide.
    Demand for mosquito nets mainly by aid groups, UNICEF and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria exceeds global supply, prompting an expansion at A to Z that will increase capacity to 15 million a year from 6 million.
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