Lyrics | Artists | Amadou & Mariam

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Amadou & Mariam

Blind from the age of six, Mariam Doumbia met her partner Amadou Bagayoko at the Institute for Young Blind in Bamako in Mali in 1977. Strongly influenced by Jimi Hendrix, Amadou was already a guitarist of some renown playing in local clubs and hotels, often with the celebrated Ambassadeurs du Motel de Bamako. The couple married in 1980 and started performing as a duo with two voices and one guitar, moving to Abidjan in the Côte d'Ivoire to further their careers. There they made their first recordings in the early 1990s and, blending traditional Mali music with rock, started touri...