Nuits d’Afrique: Home, Sweet Home

Suzanne Rousseau — We really wanted this year’s festival to do justice to 40 years of history, so we crafted a three-pronged program. First, we’re bringing back several legacy artists who’ve had an impact on the festival over the decades. They include our official opener, Oumou Sangaré, and Tabou Combo, whose career started with us in 2000. Next there are the former unknowns we’ve helped bring into the spotlight and who’ve continued to grow with the festival. And lastly, there are up-and-coming artists. This year they appear this year in both our regular series and in the Syli d’Or competition, an incubator that sees 36 groups perform over a span of two months each winter.

The festival was founded in 1987, and the entire event took place at Club Balattou over a span of 15 days. Back then, none of these groups were known in North America. The festival’s name actually comes from that original location, and our success is a direct result of it. We say “Nuits d’Afrique” but we’ve always included the Caribbean and Latin America, because all things African also spread to those regions. Africa is a continent with more than 50 countries and an incredibly rich musical heritage. That diversity has been central to our programming approach from the very beginning.

Suzanne Rousseau — These are artists from the local scene who’ve grown with us over the last 20 years or so. I’m talking about Wesli, Kizaba, Djely Tapa, King Shadrock, the Sissokho brothers, Kalabanté and Joyce N’Sana, among others – all artists who have gone on to achieve international acclaim. What’s special is that the festival is still home for them. They can always drop in to see us without making an appointment, whether it’s at the office or in the evening at the Balattou. They come to see “Papa Touré” (Lamine Touré, the festival’s president and other co-founder). That’s what it means to be a child of Nuits d’Afrique.

Suzanne Rousseau — We wanted to make a sort of “We Are the World” for Nuits d’Afrique. I discussed the idea with Meiway, the great Ivorian artist who closed the festival last year. He was all-in right away, and didn’t even ask for a fee. I think that says a lot about what the festival means to the artists.

The song is called Unis par les nuits. Tiken Jah Fakoly, Diblo Dibala and Tabou Combo all took part, and it was recorded here, in Montreal studios by the local scene. The artists didn’t all know each other, and we filmed the event. The song will be performed live on July 19, the festival’s final evening, during the Diblo Dibala concert on the Parterre, just before the set by Tiken Jah Fakoly. In fact, Tabou Combo will stay in town an extra day just for the occasion.

Suzanne Rousseau — She performed at the former Medley in 1999, then in 2000 at the late, lamented Spectrum. She returned for the festival’s 25^th anniversary, and that led to a moment I’ll never forget: she was doing an interview and Mr. Touré was there. She sang him a song. I don’t even know what they said to each other but they were both crying. When I called her manager to invite her to open the 40^th, I said I wanted to get her to cry with Mr. Touré once again.

Aside from that personal connection, Oumou Sangaré is a representative of a very rich Wassoulou culture. She’s an artist who’s remained committed to her causes, who’s always championed women’s rights. So it’s no accident that we’re opening this year’s festival with a woman with such a powerful voice.

Suzanne Rousseau — Tabou Combo always comes back, for good reason: the Haitian community is very important for the festival, and being part of Nuits d’Afrique is a source of great pride for them. As for Diblo Dibala, he’s from the generation that created soukous in the 90s and he gave his very first live performance in Montreal, at the Balattou, before going on to win acclaim in Europe and Africa. When he was just starting out, we were his family.

Suzanne Rousseau — The festival moved from the Balattou to St. Laurent Blvd., then to Parc Émilie-Gamelin, from 1995 to 2010. In 2011, our 25^th anniversary, we were invited to move to the Quartier des Spectacles. The move took the festival to a new level. In 2022, we were able to extend the site all the way to Esplanade Tranquille, which gave us a second stage and enough space to expand the Marché Tombouctou.

But despite all these moves from site to site, we’ve always worked to stay true to our mandate. Mr. Touré often asks me, as he looks over a given day’s lineup: have we travelled today? We always have to travel. The idea of diversity needs to be woven into each day’s program. That’s why even today, the festival remains the artists’ home.