West Africa's Les Amazones D'Afrique Release New Single 'Flaws'

The all-female African supergroup Les Amazones d'Afrique, a collective which has included some of the biggest stars in African music, kickstart 2024 with their infectious new single, ‘Flaws'. 
 
Opening with an in-your-face, iconic 808 drumbeat ‘Flaws' features Mamani Keïta and Fafa Ruffino on lead vocals with instantly memorable hooks and the deft pop production work of Jacknife Lee (U2, Modest Mouse, Taylor Swift). The track is taken from their forthcoming third album, Musow Danse, out 16 February 2024 on Real World Records.
 
“The song has a simple message,” explains Malian singer Mamani Keïta. “The perfect person does not exist. We all have our flaws and imperfections which we carry with us through life, but there is beauty in imperfection, and that's what we want people to realise.”
 
“Jacknife Lee took time to listen to each of our voices,” says Fafa Ruffino, from Benin. “He doesn't understand the language but you can tell that he feels the emotion, understands that our souls are deeply invested in our words. I feel like he entered our minds. What he did is more than musical. It is spiritual.”
 
The accompanying music video for ‘Flaws' was directed by Zambian contemporary dance artist and choreographer Kennedy Junior Muntanga and sees Mamani Keïta team up with a group of teenage dancers full of charm and youthful energy from the ACE Dance and Music school in Birmingham, England. The school's mission is to promote dance through cultural exchange, and they have been working for over 20 years as leaders in the field of contemporary African and Caribbean dance, nurturing young talent from diverse backgrounds. The dancers truly encapsulate the song's message of self-love and acceptance in a heart-warming performance filmed at ACE's rehearsal studio.
 
“It was an amazing experience for our young dancers to work with such thoughtful and inspirational artists from across Africa. It's exactly the kind of opportunity that we love to be able to offer to them, and we're so proud of what they've been able to offer in return”
— Gail Parmel MBE, artistic director of ACE Dance and Music

The presence of Africa —more specifically, of artists from countries in West and Central Africa— is felt throughout the forthcoming album Musow Danse. It's there in the cornucopia of sonorities and languages (Bambara, Bété, Ewe, Fon, Pidgin, more) used to tell stories, oden through the proverb-form integral to African culture: “Everyone has flaws / People with flaws carry them everywhere they go,” sing Keïta and Ruffino on ‘Flaws', their voices sparking and intertwining. “No matter what, we're gonna make it / Get up, get up, get up, RISE.”

Africa is there on the record in the use of call-and-response, that aeons-old reciprocal melodising that captures the joy inherent in that most versatile of instruments, the human voice. It's there in all the colour, positivity and creative forward-thinking that makes, has always made, Africa great, and in the inspiration taken from Les Amazones live shows with all their spectacle and energy and movement.

‘Flaws' is out now. The album, Musow Danse, will be released on CD, LP and digitally via Real World Records on 16 February 2024. Les Amazones d'Afrique begin their European tour in at the end of January. 

Les Amazones d'Afrique - Live 2024 (More dates to be announced)

30 JAN 24 JUVISY-SUR-ORGE Les Bords de Scènes
02 FEB 24 GLASGOW St. Luke's
15 FEB 24 PANTIN La Dynamo
16 FEB 24 SAINT-SYMPHORIEN-D'OZON Espace Culturel Louise Labe
24 FEB 24 LEUVEN COOL Festival @ Het Depot
29 FEB 24 SCEAUX Les Gémeaux Scène Nationale
02 MAR 24 SAINT-DIZIER Les Fuseaux
27 MAR 24 OYONNAX Centre Culturel Louis Aragon
29 MAR 24 BLOIS Maison de Begon
07 APR 24 LA CLUSAZ Radio Meuh Circus Festival

More about Les Amazones d'Afrique:

Les Amazones d'Afrique is a creative force that embraces international voices; sweet, strong harmonies that summon the rights of women and girls; and a meltdown of heritage and new gen talent.

They were formed in Bamako, Mali, in 2014 by three renowned Malian music stars and social change activists, Mamani Keïta, Oumou Sangaré and Mariam Doumbia, and the collective has since expanded to involve many female artists from across Africa and the diaspora, including Angélique Kidjo, Nneka and rising Malian star Rokia Koné.

While their cause — campaigning for gender equality and eradicating ancestral violence — is worthy enough in itself, their musical creative expression is equally powerful. Richly melodic and far-ranging, it blends pan-African styles and collaborative harmonies with gritty, contemporary pop. 

The band's two previous albums have garnered considerable acclaim — The Guardian's Top 50 albums of 2017, NPR Music's best albums of 2020, and featuring on Barrack Obama's playlist. They have performed on Glastonbury Festival's Pyramid stage and featured on flagship BBC music show Later… with Jools Holland.