Natu Camera at Festival International...

Once when I was picking out music for a group of people whom I thought were really ready for some grooves I discovered that this group and I can only logically transpose this conclusion to general proportional percentages of the population was uncomfortable listening to tunes sung in a different language. 

Somehow that has never bothered me. I like it different. It's possible I was in the minority at Festival International in Laffite, La. listening to Natu Camera an Afro Pop singer from the west African Country of Guinea where most people are French speaking as are many people in Laffite.      

Afro Pop is big right now. You might tell me country music is big right now because Garth Brooks caused an earthquake when he sang Calling Baton Rouge in Baton Rouge because of all the stomping and singing his fans did but worldwide there are a lot of people buying Afro Pop records. Guinea is a predominantly Muslim country bordered by Mali and Senegal. Enslaved people were exported from it's Atlantic coast along with the stringed middle eastern desert instruments that became the banjo, fiddle and dobro. Without this happening Garth Brooks would not have a day job.      

This is happy party music. There is some despair in it, in Natu's personal life and in the struggles of her country. There are 24 different ethnic groups, a long history of military coups, authoritarian rule, and human rights abuses including female genital mutilation.  

I was glad to see this band. I'm not really educated in the Afro Pop stars and who they are but instead I pick my music by country. Now that I have heard music from Guinea I'll be on the look out for more.  

Get outside the comfort of your language. Just listen, just dance.