Amadou & Mariam to Tour North America This Summer

Amadou & Mariam will tour North America this summer for the first time since 2009, stopping at festivals including Lollapalooza, Central Park SummerStage, Outside Lands, and Osheaga, in addition to headlining theaters and clubs.  Performances Will Feature Material from New Album, Folila (Because Music/Nonesuch Records)

On the tour, Amadou & Mariam will perform songs from Folila, the duo’s critically acclaimed new Because Music/Nonesuch Records album, which features contributions by Santigold, TV on the Radio, Nick Zinner, Theophilus London (who will open for Amadou & Mariam at SummerStage), Bassekou Kouyate, and others. Folila is produced by Marc-Antoine Moreau, who has worked with the duo since their 1999 debut, Sou Ni Tilé. They recorded the songs in New York and then re-recorded them, with more traditional instrumentation, in Bamako. The version of each song on the final album is a composite of tracks from both sessions, meticulously mixed together.

Newsweek calls Folila “magic,” Spin deems it “the African record of the year,” and Pitchfork describes it as a “seamless synthesis of the music of their homeland and the music of the rest of the world.” The release prompted Interview to say, “If you’ve heard their songs described as ‘world’ music, you’ve been misled.”

Folila is the first Amadou & Mariam studio album since Welcome to Mali, which garnered the duo their second Grammy nomination, a performance on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon,” opening slots in stadium shows with Coldplay and U2, and vast critical praise.

On the summer tour, Amadou (vocals, guitar) and Mariam (vocals) will be backed by a band including Yves Abadi (drums), Yao Dembele (electric bass), Boubacar Dembele (percussion), Charles Frederic Avot (keyboards) Mo DJ (DJ), Aminata Doumbia (backing vocals) and Woridio Tounkara (backing vocals).

Confirmed North America Tour Dates Include:

July 31
Washington, DC
9:30 Club

August 1
Boston, MA
Paradise Rock Club

August 3
Montreal, QUE
Parterre Parc Jean Drapeau
Osheaga Music and Arts Festival

August 4
New York, NY
Central Park SummerStage

August 5
Chicago, IL
Grant Park
Lollapalooza

August 6
Madison, WI
Capitol Theater
Overture Center for the Arts

August 7
Minneapolis, MN
Cedar Cultural Center

August 10
San Francisco, CA
Golden Gate Park
Outside Lands Festival

August 14
Salt Lake City, UT
Red Butte Garden Amphitheatre
With Andrew Bird

August 16
Santa Monica, CA
Santa Monica Pier