Blog August 29, 2017
Amadou and Mariam's New Video “La Confusion”
<p>Amadou and Mariam, musicians from Mali who are now based in France, have released a video for their new album's title track, “La Confusion.” Fittingly enough, this earworm of a song might just make you go “Huh?”</p>
<iframe loading="lazy" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GXKRDMZeKdA?rel=0" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
<p>Their story has been told many times over: both musicians lost their vision at a young age and met at Mali's Institute for the Young Blind. They managed to parlay this meeting into both a life partner and musical collaborator, marrying and teaming up to make music in the '80s. They recorded in Mali and Côte d'Ivoire, eventually finding success after a move to France, and making a big breakthrough in the United States with 2004's <em>Dimanche á Bamako </em>and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J43T8rEOg-I" target="_blank" rel="noopener">its hit single, “Sénégal Fast Food.”</a></p>
<p>But “La Confusion”—the track and maybe the whole album—seems to be building on a sound the band forged on the 2008 recording, <em>Welcome to Mali</em>, which added glossy synths over Amadou's loping guitar lines. The new song could even pass as some sort of neo-new wave track—a kind of Afro-blues take on A-Ha or Depeche Mode. Although there could be something else going on—I could just be confused.</p>
<p><em><a href="http://www.forcedexposure.com/Catalog/amadou-mariam-la-confusion-cd/BEC.5543140.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">La Confusion</a></em> the album comes out Sept. 22, 2017 on Because Music.</p>
