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I like wearing clothes which fuse elements of different cultures. Im n — Sally Nyolo

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"I like wearing clothes which fuse elements of different cultures. Im not just "Africa" today, you see, Im a world melting-pot! It takes me an hour to get ready for each performance. I like to take the time to do my make-up and choose which materials Im going to wear on stage. The way I see it, musics not just about sound, its also about stories, paintings, perfumes and colours. You dont just listen to music - you breathe it, you taste it and you enjoy it visually! When Im on stage I love constructing a décor for my songs which helps transport the audience into another world."
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Sally Nyolo
Sally Nyolo
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Born in the Lekié region of Cameroon in 1965, Sally Nyolo left her homeland at the age of 13 to settle in Paris where she has lived since. Nyolo started her professional career in 1982, first as a backup-singer working with numerous French and African artists, and by composing music for radio and cinema.

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"The thing is Id always felt very drawn to my roots. In fact, Ive always felt this real homesickness for my country and my native language, Eton. When I was growing up I made my mother speak to me in Eton all the time - that way, over the years, I havent lost touch with the music of my mother tongue. All the time I was singing backing vocals for other artists, Id be singing and writing material for myself too. Id write my songs in French, English and Eton. Then one day I was going through my material and I realised that most of the stuff Id written was in Eton. This material formed the basis for my first demo tapes which later got worked into my debut album "Tribu". Around the same period I was already getting interested in bikutsi - thats a type of music from central and southern Cameroon which nobody was playing in Paris back in those days."
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Sally Nyolo
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"Unfortunately, its not an African scene... The most important scene for me was the scene where I played with Maceo Parker , James Brown and there were more than 70,000 people in front of us. They bought all my CDs and at the end of the concert, they took off their t-shirts and asked me to sign on their bodies with permanent markers. The scene happened in Denmark. Another unforgettable memory was in Belgium when I saw children paint their hands blue and they made a line from the stage to the dressing room to wait for me. While I sang in Eton, in Fang, in our languages, these children shook their hands to tell me that I had given them the opportunity to think that there are no colors among humans. Culture has no color, its the vibration that we give to the other that counts."
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Sally Nyolo