One of the most highly rated modern African singer-songwriters for her inventive
style and fearless approach, Fatoumata Diawara was originally a child actor.
Born on 21 February 1982 in Ouragahio on the Ivory Coast to Malian parents, she
is one of eleven children and was sent to live with an aunt in Bamako, Mali at
the age of nine. Her initial passion was acting and after early stardom in Mali,
she defied her family and ran away to France in her teens to pursue her acting
career with the Royal de Luxe theatre company. It was in Paris that her instinct
for music took over and she ...