Amadou & Mariam’s Amadou Bagayoko Dead At 70

Amadou Bagayoko, the singer and guitarist of Malian duo Amadou & Mariam, has died. The musician passed away on Friday (Apr. 4) in his birthplace of Bamako, and Mali’s Minister of Culture Mamou Daffé paid tribute to him in a televised broadcast. A cause of death has not been revealed. He was 70.

Amadou Bagayoko lost his vision at 15 and met Mariam Doumbia at the Mali’s Institute for the Young Blind, where they were both a part of the institute’s Eclipse Orchestra. Amadou & Mariam formed in 1974. Their fifth studio album Dimanche À Bamako brought them worldwide success, and its follow-up, 2008’s Welcome To Mali, earned them a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary World Music Album. It contained the hit “Sabali” and featured production from Damon Albarn, and Amadou & Mariam later opened up for Blur, along with Coldplay and U2. In 2009, they were joined onstage by Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour at a show in London to support a homeless charity.

Their eighth album Folila featured guests like Santigold and TV On The Radio, and their final LP was 2017’s La Confusion. At the closing ceremony of the 2024 Summer Paralympics, the duo performed Serge Gainsbourg’s “Je suis venu te dire que je m’en vais.”