Wake Up Madagascar is a magical concert experience with a mission: to end illegal logging in the rainforests of Madagascar. Singer, songwriter and environmental activist Razia Said spent her childhood in the vanilla-growing region of Madagascar’s northeast coast. After years of living abroad, she returned to discover her country’s landscape ravaged by illegal logging, slash and burn agriculture and the impact of climate change. In an effort to raise awareness at the local and international level, Razia organized the Mifohaza Masoala (Wake Up Masoala) music/environmental festival, which took place at the edge of the Masoala Rainforest in October 2011. Before the concert local inhabitants planted a total of 20,000 trees. The concert featured some of Madagascar’s most exciting performers, and the festival was a huge success. The participants agreed that the next step was to take the music and the message to the world.
The Wake Up Madagascar tour features Malagasy star Eusebe Jaojoby, supported by an all-star lineup including Razia, Charles Kely and Saramba, creating an uplifting celebration of salegy music. With its heart-pounding rhythms, rippling guitars, lush vocal harmonies, bouncy accordion and hip-shaking dance moves, salegy represents the soul and spirit of the “Red Island.” A magical concert experience with a mission: to end illegal logging in the rainforests of Madagascar.
PRICES
Everyone: FREE
Friday, July 18, 2014
7:30PM – 9:00PM
235 Queens Quay West
Jaojoby
Jaojoby Eusèbe Jaojoby is the most popular singer in Madagascar and throughout the Indian Ocean islands. He is one of the founders and the most brilliant interpreter of the style that symbolizes the “Red Island,” salegy.
Born in 1955 in a village on the northeastern coast of Madagascar, Jaojoby and his 12 brothers and sisters grew up singing Catholic hymns in church choirs and traditional folk songs at village festivals, celebrations and community events. As a teenager, Jaojoby began performing professionally, blending elements of Malagasy roots music with Western influences, especially electric guitars and drumkits. While his musical career was sidetracked in the 1980s, he was convinced to participate in a French recording of salegy songs, which led to a hit single and the rejuvenation of Jaojoby’s prominence in the local music scene. Since releasing the first of seven solo albums in 1992, Jaojoby’s local and international following has continued to grow and he has become Madgascar’s most beloved performers and recording artists.
Razia Said
Singer and songwriter Razia Said’s nomadic life has taken her across Africa to France, Italy, Ibiza, Bali and New York City, but despite these wanderings, her heart and soul remains inexorably tethered to Madagascar, the land of her birth. Over the years Razia experimented with chanson, rock, jazz and even R&B. But it took reaching back to her cultural roots for Razia to uncover her true artistic calling as one of African music’s most promising talents. Since the release of her breakthrough album Zebu Nation in 2009, Razia has brought her message of environmental and cultural preservation to enraptured audiences on stages worldwide.
raziasaid.com
Charles Kelly
An author, composer and guitar virtuoso, Charles Kely grew up surrounded by the ba gasy tradition of the highland plateaus in Madagascar. Kely’s style, which he describes as “open gasy,” refers to the open tuning so characteristic of Madagascar’s guitarists. He is now focusing on his solo career with the release of the CD Zoma Zoma which captures his innovative approach to Malagasy music, which incorporates the open gasy style with a touch of bossa, jazz, blues, funk and subtle pan-African influences.
Saramba
Claudine Robert Zafinera (also known as Dina) embodies a combination of the south and north of Madagascar. Her father is originally from the southwest and her mother from the northeast; her own unique style of salegy combines these cultures with infectious grooves. Dina and Jaojoby married in 1988 and they have been singing together ever since. In 2008 she created her own band: Saramba, formed mainly by women. The music of Saramba is based on Malagasy traditional music, the very characteristic powerful voice of Dina accentuate her lyrics about the urgent call for the Malagasy people to pay attention to women’s issues.
cumbancha.com