Metzo Djatah-Bebeyo (04:00)

Metzo Djatah was born into a family of teachers in Dakar, so a career in music was not the obvious choice. Although he tried out various instruments, he initially poured his energy into his basketball passion, but after studying humanities in France, the young man started to get seriously interested in music. It was in France that he first tried his hand at the craft, as a musician with the group No Dilem, producing a hybrid of hip hop and jazz and earning himself some solid experience.

In 1999, his first self-produced album Diembering, named after a Casamance village, shot into the top ten of the radio “world mix” charts. As well as in Senegal, Djatah’s music was a success in France, where he played numerous concerts. With his album Deugeul, a mix of mbalax and folk that showed a desire to develop his career back home, Metzo Djatah moved back into centre stage in 2002.

The musician feels strongly about cultural diversity, and showed his social commitment by participating in a children’s education awareness programme for two years. The experience inspired two songs which he performed to primary school pupils.

Metzo Djatah-Skamania (03:37)

With his album Roots acoustikeur, Metzo Djatah made a comeback in 2009. Building a definitive bridge between traditional and urban music, the artist proposed rhythmic diversity and hard line lyrics. The multi-instrumentalist, author, composer and arranger aligns himself with the Urban Afro Folk genre, a style that blends cultures and influences.

Translation; Anne-Marie Harper

Metzo Djatah's website