Lagos — Youssou n'Dour has been called many things. "African artist of the Century" by Folk Roots. BBC calls him the best known African artist in the world. New York Times describes his voice as an "arresting tenor, a supple weapon deployed with prophetic authority" while the LA Times describes his voice as a "joyous precision"

Born in Dakar in 1959, he began singing as a child performer at neighborhood gatherings in the tough Medina section of Dakar, Senegal, West Africa. He took formally to the stage at age 12 and by his mid-teens was singing regularly with the Star Band, the most successful group in Senegal at that time.

He is a Senegalese singer, percussionist and occasional actor. In 2004, Rolling Stone described him as, in Senegal and much of Africa, "perhaps the most famous singer alive. He helped develop popular music in Senegal, known in the Wolof language as mbalax.

Mbalax

Mbalax is a blend of the Senagal's traditional griot percussion and praise-singing with the Afro-Cuban and Haitian kompa arrangements and flavors which made the return trip from the Caribbean to West Africa in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s and have flourished in West Africa ever since. Beginning in the mid-1970s the resulting mix was modernized with a cross of more complex indigenous Senegalese dance rhythms, roomy and melodic guitar and saxophone solos, chattering talking-drum soliloquies and, on occasion, Sufi-inspired Muslim religious chant. This created a new music which was at turns nostalgic, restrained and stately, or celebratory, explosively syncopated and funky.

Younger Senegalese musicians steeped in Jimi Hendrix, Carlos Santana, James Brown, and the whole range of American jazz, soul, and rock music, which Senegal's cosmopolitan capital, Dakar, had enthusiastically absorbed, were rediscovering their heritage and seeking out traditional performers, particularly singers and talking drummers, to join their bands. (The griots-musicians, praise-singers and storyteller-historians-comprise a distinct hereditary caste in Wolof society and throughout West Africa.) As it emerged from this period of fruitful musical turbulence, mbalax would eventually find in Youssou N'Dour the performer who has arguably had more to do with its shaping than any other individual.

Growing up

Although N'Dour has connections to the traditional griot caste on his mother's side, he wasn't raised in that tradition, learning it instead from his siblings. His parents encouraged him to look at things in a more modern manner, leaving him open to two cultures, with the result that he refers to himself as a modern griot.

In 1979, he formed his own ensemble, the Etoile de Dakar. His early work with Etoile de Dakar was in the typical Latin style popular all over Africa during that time, but in the 1980s he developed a unique sound when he started his current group, Super Etoile de Dakar featuring Jimi Mbaye on guitar, bassist Habib Faye, and tama (talking drum) player Assane Thiam.

Fame

Youssou N'Dour is one of the most celebrated African musicians in history. A renowned singer, songwriter, and composer, Youssou's mix of traditional Senegalese mbalax with eclectic influences ranging from Cuban samba to hip hop, jazz, and soul has won him an international fan base of millions. In the West, Youssou has collaborated with musicians Peter Gabriel, Axelle Red, Sting, Alan Stivell, Bran Van 3000, Neneh Cherry, Wyclef Jean, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, Tracy Chapman, Branford Marsalis, Ryuichi Sakamoto and others. In Senegal, Youssou is a powerful cultural icon actively involved in social issues.

His ensemble, the Etoile de Dakar by 1981, had evolved into The Super Etoile. The most famous band in Africa, The Super Etoile, guided by Youssou N'Dour has crafted and invented a thoroughly modern African pop style, one which has gone on to influence artists as diverse as Peter Gabriel and Paul Simon.

It was Gabriel, in fact, who introduced N'Dour to American and British artists via his So album (in 1986) and took N'Dour and The Super Etoile on the road with him in a subsequent world tour. In 1988, Youssou N'Dour was a co-headliner on the Amnesty International "Human Rights Now!" tour alongside Gabriel, Bruce Springsteen, Sting, and Tracy Chapman. It was during the "Human Rights Now!" tour that N'Dour first heard Chimes of Freedom and became friends with Branford Marsalis, who appears on The Guide.

N'Dour's first international album releases on Virgin, The Lion (1989), produced by George Acogny and containing the N'Dour-Gabriel composed single "Shaking The Tree"; and Set (1990), produced by Brian Eno-compadre Michael Brook, prompted Brian Cullman to write in Rolling Stone:

"If any third world performer has a real shot at the sort of universal popularity last enjoyed by Bob Marley, it's Youssou, a singer with a voice so extraordinary that the history of Africa seems locked inside it."

In the summer of 1991, Youssou N'Dour signed to Spike Lee's 40 Acres and A Mule Musicworks label, distributed by Columbia. N'Dour was impressed by Lee's stated commitment to "enlarging the legacy of great African-American music" in a wide range of styles and Lee's belief that N'Dour's music constituted a part of that legacy. The result of that union was 1992's Eyes Open; self-produced by N'Dour at his own state-of-the-art Xippi Studio in Dakar and featuring The Super Etoile, Eyes Open went on to win a Grammy Award nomination.

N'Dour is endowed with remarkable range and poise, a composer, bandleader, and producer with a prodigious musical intelligence. The New York Times most recently described his voice as an "arresting tenor, a supple weapon deployed with prophetic authority". N'Dour absorbs the entire Senegalese musical spectrum in his work, often filtering this through the lens of genre-defying rock or pop music from outside Senegalese culture.

In July 1993, an African opera composed by N'Dour premiered at the Opéra Bastille. He wrote and performed the official anthem of the 1998 FIFA World Cup with Axelle Red "La Cour des Grands".

His roots make the difference

N'Dour's major asset is that he is strongly grounded in his culture. Even if he chooses to explore elsewhere, his roots are well established. Some have gone so far as describing him as the African Artist of the Century (Folk Roots magazine). He has toured internationally for almost 30 years. He won his first American Grammy Award (best contemporary world music album) for his CD Egypt in 2005 which turned controversial.

In recent years, he has opened his own recording studio, Xippi, as well as his own record label, Jololi.

N'Dour has associated himself with several social and political issues. In 1985, he organized a concert for the release of Nelson Mandela. He was a featured performer in the 1988 worldwide Amnesty International Human Rights Now! Tour collaborating with Lou Reed to contribute a version of the Peter Gabriel song Biko which was produced by Richard James Burgess and featured on the Amnesty International benefit album The Secret Policeman's Third Ball. He has also worked with the United Nations and UNICEF and he started Project Joko to open internet cafés in Africa and to connect Senegalese communities around the world. He performed at three of the Live 8 concerts (in Live 8 concert, London, Live 8 concert, Paris and at the Live 8 concert, Eden Project in Cornwall) on 2 July, 2005, with Dido.

In 2006, N'Dour played the African-British abolitionist Olaudah Equiano in the movie Amazing Grace, which chronicles the efforts of William Wilberforce to end slavery in the British Empire.

Recently, he has covered John Lennon's Jealous Guy for the CD Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur. He also featured in a joint Spain-Senegal ad campaign against illegal immigrants. Youssou N'Dour participated in the Stock Exchange of Visions project in 2007.

In 2009 N'Dour released his song "Wake Up (It's Africa Calling)" under Creative Commons license to help IntraHealth International in their IntraHealth Open campaign to bring open source health applications to Africa. The song was remixed by a variety of artists including Nas, Peter Buck of R.E.M., and Duncan Sheik to help raise money for the campaign

Educating the world about Islam

N'Dour is set to open a conference in June in US on the true face of Islam and a documentary about himself.

'I want to show the true face of Islam-a religion in which people can dance, even enjoy,' Senegalese singer Youssou N'Dour said over lunch in Harlem, where children mobbed him with adoration in the streets. 'People don't have to associate Islam with fear and sadness. Why is that the only image of Islam in the media?'

The new documentary film about N'Dour's struggles and victories plays in theaters across the United States starting June 12. It is screened Saturday evening before an hour-long sold-out live show at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, capped by a frenzied dancing ovation from the audience.

Over the years, the 49-year-old singer has sold millions of albums and performed with Western stars including Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, Sting, and Bono.

N'Dour insists on performing religious-themed music in his vibrant, African rhythm-driven shows-despite a boycott of his 2004 album 'Egypt' in his native Senegal that lasted almost two years. The album initially was banned in Egypt, with Muslims accusing N'Dour of 'desecrating' Islam by mixing it with secular pop culture; some even spread false rumors that he used naked women in videos.

On Friday in Brooklyn, United States of America, the best-selling pop artist opened the 'Muslim Voices: Arts And Ideas Festival' of 100 artists from 23 countries. Their 10-day program ranges from Arabic cinema, Indonesian dance and African music to film and other visual arts.

The documentary 'Youssou N'Dour: I Bring What I Love' follows the controversy that tagged N'Dour after the release of 'Egypt,' which won a Grammy in 2005. The next year, N'Dour and his band filled Carnegie Hall.

'When I listened to 'Egypt' I was moved, because he grew up listening to the (late) Egyptian singer Umm Kulthoum, the voice of the Muslim world,' said Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, who directed the documentary. 'And he wanted to celebrate Islam in Senegal as a peaceful, tolerant culture.'

At the time in N'Dour's native West Africa, some stores returned copies of the album, radio stations refused to play it and sales were poor compared with those of his previous releases.

He persisted, winning over many of his detractors as an official UNICEF goodwill ambassador who is working to stop malaria in Africa on behalf of the U.S.-based nonprofit Malaria No More, distributing free mosquito nets to families on the continent while entertaining them.

N'Dour said he hopes the documentary will help him 'to break a taboo subject _ that Islam is what the extremists do.'

As usual this weekend's African Voices on CNN powered by Bank PHB promises to be as incisive as it would be revealing. The Programme airs on Saturday at 12.30 pm and 7.30 p.m with repeat broadcast on Sunday at 6 p.m.