We continue last week’s theme of only locally popular music and have a closer look at the Senegalese artist Youssou N’Dour, who is considered one of the most celebrated African artists in history. He joined Star Band, Dakar’s most popular band in the 1970ies at the tender age of sixteen and became one of the founding fathers of Mbalax, a hugely popular musical style combining traditional Senegalese music with the Latin styles popular at the time. But despite frequent collaborations with several well-known Western musicians (not least among them Peter Gabriel or Paul Simon) outside Africa he is by far best known for the single he did together with Swedish singer Neneh Cherry.

Cherry – whose family history is rather complicated and who moved a fair bit around the Western hemisphere in her life – stated that the huge success the song had worldwide took her quite by surprise, as the track was supposed to be an experiment.

The title of “7 Seconds” refers to the first few breaths in the life of a child, as of yet unaware of the harshness and violence of the world it’s coming into. It features lyrics in French, English and the West African Wolof.