Rokia Traore at Open, Norwich

On the evening of Tuesday 21st May 2013 I attended the Rokia Traore concert at Open, Norwich. This Norfolk and Norwich Festival event featured this fantastic Malian singer who was showcasing her new album, Beautiful Africa which was produced by John Parish. I saw her at the Barbican in London last year and I was looking forward to seeing her perform in my home city.

Rokia Traore was most recently seen in the UK as part of Damon Albarn's Africa Express. Her music is the sounds of Malian roots, blues, rock, jazz and folk. She has been described as the most adventurous female singer in Africa and has a striking stage presence.

The concert was delayed by fifty minutes, but this didn't damp any of the enthusiasm of the large crowd in attendance at Open as we looked forward to seeing Rokia Traore perform her amazing music. She apologised for being late for the first time in her fifteen year career before playing a ninety minute set.

This was a concert full of energy and wonderful music as Rokia Traore and her band filled the venue with the sounds of Africa. The lyrics of her songs are in French and Bambara, that expressed a mixture of emotions, both sad and joyful. This was a brilliant night at Open as Rokia Traore showed why she is such a big star in her native Mali with an emotional performance that moved and greatly entertained the Festival crowd.

Desdemona at The Barbican

On the evening of Thursday 19th July 2012 I attended the performance of Desdemona by Toni Morrison, Peter Sellars and Rokia Traore featuring Tina Benko at Barbican Hall in the City of London. This event was part of the World Shakespeare and London 2012 Festivals.

Written by Toni Morrison and directed by Peter Sellars, this project was inspired by the fourth act of Othello, in which Desdemona, facing death, sings Willow Song, taught to her by Barbary. This allows an exploration of Desdemona's fascination with Africa, for monologues on women, love, race, relationships and war, for discussions in the afterlife with Othello himself, and between the mothers of Othello and Desdemona. All the voices were provided by Tina Benko.

Between the spoken narratives Malian singer Rokia Traore sang a set of powerful songs with the lyrics translated on a background screen. She is one of a new generation of African women who's music has moved beyond the World Music category. This was an amazing night to be at The Barbican with this moving and visual performance. We danced together, our bodies moving in such harmony it was as though we had known each other all our lives.