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53 albums · 1972–2022

Music of Senegal, from Orchestra Baobab and the mbalax to Youssou N'Dour, Baaba Maal, Daara J and today

· 2 min read · by 1001 Albums

Youssou N'Dour singing on stage with his band behind him
Orchestra Baobab on stage with timbales, two saxophones and a koraA smiling kora player seated with his instrument in front of a stone wall
Youssou N'Dour at the Festival de Cornouaille in Quimper in 2010. Photo: Thesupermat, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. · Orchestra Baobab at KOKO in London in 2017. Photo: Neodop, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. · A kora player at Toubab Dialaw, on the coast south of Dakar. Photo: M.GADJ!, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Senegal's popular music has the Dakar orchestras of the sixties and seventies, the Star Band, Orchestra Baobab, Étoile de Dakar, Number One and Xalam, the mbalax that Youssou N'Dour, Thione Seck, Omar Pene's Super Diamono, Ismaël Lô, Coumba Gawlo and Wally Seck carried from the clubs of Dakar to the world, Baaba Maal and Mansour Seck's songs of the Fouta, Touré Kunda's Casamance, the kora of Soundioulou Cissokho, Ablaye Cissoko and Seckou Keita, the sabar of Doudou N'Diaye Rose, the hip hop of Positive Black Soul, Daara J, Nix and Dip Doundou Guiss, Cheikh Lô's Né la thiass, Faada Freddy's voices and the jazz of Hervé Samb, with the khassida of Touba as a single nod. The list has 53 records from 1972 to 2022, one or two by each name and only a small part of what they made; the chants of Touba beyond that nod, the song of each region from the Fouta to the Casamance, the Saint-Louis of the jazz festival and the many cassettes of the eighties and nineties that never reached streaming are left for other lists. About 46 hours of music, 5 days of a few records each.

By genre

World 22%Folk & Country 8%Hip hop 7%Other 63%
  • World 22%
  • Folk & Country 8%
  • Hip hop 7%
  • Other 63%

The genres named most: senegalese, mbalax, folk, hip hop, pop, dance band.

The colours of the covers

A stripe for each cover, in the colour Tidal picks from it, sorted by hue; the greys at the end.

Where the music comes from

Music from 1 country: Senegal 53. The deeper the colour, the more albums: one, two to four, five to nine, ten and more.

The 1970s

The 1980s

The 1990s

The 2000s

The 2010s

The 2020s

More lists

Lists of Countries first, then others; all of them on the blog. The blog.