![]() At this point, he was continuously touring. That same year, he sang in Hebrew during a concert in Morocco. He drew his arguments and inspiration from his own diverse knowledge of the Bible, the Quran, and the Torah. Blondy tried to promote unity between the religion of Islam, Judaism and Christianity. In 1986, he recorded “Jerusalem” at Tuff Gong studios in Jamaica, again with The Wailers featuring legendary Aston "Family Man" Barrett. The "Bob Marley of Africa" travelled to the island of Jamaica and recorded the title track of this album with Marley's backing group, The Wailers.īack home in 1985, Blondy went into the studio to record "Apartheid is Nazism", a call for the end of apartheid. Following the success of an EP entitled Rasta Poué, he went to Paris in 1984 to make his second album, Cocody Rock, with the label Pathe Marconi. ![]() Soon, the fame of Alpha Blondy spread to Europe. Later, he also brought new instrumentation to his brand of reggae such as the violin and cello. ![]() In order to reach more people with his message, he chose to sing in many languages: English French Baoulé, and his native language - Dioula. ![]() Alpha Blondy is spiritual, political and positive just like Marley himself, and recorded a cover of Bob Marley's song "War". This album was to have enormous success and would become later a symbol of resistance because of the song "Brigadier Sabari," which documents his experience of being arrested in Abidjan in the 1980s and his subsequent mistreatment by the police.Īlpha Blondy became a big star in Abidjan with his African twist of Reggae music, becoming in the eyes of his fans "the Bob Marley of Africa". This was the beginning of his real career as a musician, and he began to use the name "Alpha Blondy".Īfter various TV shows for Kassi, Blondy recorded his first solo album in 1982, entitled Jah Glory. Seydou was involved in multiple altercations and returned to the Ivory Coast, where he got into more trouble until he met one of his childhood friends, Fulgence Kassi, who had become a noted television producer. In New York, he met Rastafari for the first time and saw concerts by Jamaican artists such as Burning Spear. In 1974, Seydou moved to New York where he majored in English at Hunter College and the Columbia University American Language Program because he wanted to be a teacher. Many Alpha Blondy songs become very popular and trendy online with a great number of streaming and downloads on Boomplay. He spent thirteen months there and then moved to the United States to improve his English. His parents sent him to study English in Monrovia, the capital city of Liberia, in 1973. He formed a band in high school, but this affected his schooling and he was expelled for poor attendance. In 1962, Alpha Blondy joined his father in Odienné, where he spent ten years, attended Sainte Elisabeth High School, and was involved in the Ivory Coast students movement. The first son of a family of eight children, Seydou Koné was raised by his grandmother in an environment described by him as "among elders", which was to have a big impact on his career. Many of his songs are politically and socially motivated, and are mainly sung in his native language Dyula, French and English, sometimes he occasionally uses other languages, for example, Arabic or Hebrew. Seydou Koné (born Januin Dimbokro), better known by his stage name Alpha Blondy, is an Ivorian reggae singer and international recording artist.
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