Youssou N’Dour: 2017 Præmium Imperiale Laureate of Music | JAPAN Forward HD

Full story: https://goo.gl/VffksC Youssou N’Dour: 2017 Præmium Imperiale Laureate of Music Born October 1, 1959 / Dakar, Senegal Youssou N’Dour is a singer, songwriter and composer from Senegal. Although born into a griot (storytelling) family, he was influenced from an early age by modern, often international, music−the echoes of which can still be heard in his culturally wide-ranging work. N’Dour began performing at the age of 12, initially with the Star Band and then with his own band, Étoile de Dakar. His music is a joyful mix of traditional Senegalese Mbalax, jazz, soul, Latin and even hip-hop, but words remain central to his art, and his songs deal with a vast range of social issues. His voice and extraordinary vocal range are closely associated with world music, a genre created in the late 1980s through collaborations of musicians like N’Dour with western musicians like Peter Gabriel, Paul Simon and Sting. In 1994, 7 Seconds, a hugely successful collaboration with the Swedish singer-songwriter Neneh Cherry, turned N’Dour into an internationally recognized musical artist. In 2004, he won a Grammy Award for his album Egypt. In 2012, N’Dour stopped performing to run in the Senegalese presidential election, returning to the stage in 2013. His 34th album, Africa Rekk, was released in 2016. He is the first Senegalese recipient of the Præmium Imperiale. === About JAPAN Forward: JAPAN Forward is a new English-language news and opinion website run by the JAPAN Forward association Inc. JAPAN Forward aims to present the true face of Japan, as seen from a wide variety of perspectives, to a rapidly-changing world where unpredictability often outpaces stability. Japan has long lagged behind other countries—all of which have their own points of view—in conveying her own take on the world around. JAPAN Forward sets out to overcome misunderstandings born of linguistic barriers. In covering major news stories in Japan, along with key points of debate, current events, history, culture, and the arts, we hope to deepen the world’s understanding of the Japanese archipelago. With the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games on the horizon, there is a great need for a new English-language medium rooted in solid fact and fully cognizant of the history and culture of Japan and the Japanese people. Our expanding network of influential analysts and foreign experts based in Japan and overseas means that we are continuously improving our ability to bring the truth about Japan to an ever-wider English-speaking audience. At the helm of JAPAN Forward is an editor who has decades of journalism experience in Europe and the United States, while our editorial team of native speakers hails from policy research centers, academia, journalism outlets, and more. This is the real Japan, in real English. JAPAN Forward is operated by JAPAN Forward Association Inc., which has also established the JAPAN Forward Supporters Network to allow individual and corporate sponsors to jo