Moussolou

I first saw Oumou Sangaré when she was 'just a singer' with the Ensemble Djoliba Percussion of Bamba Dembelé. It was at the 1987 Angoulême festival and Bamba (who I had met when he played with the Super Djata Band) had invited us to stay at the youth hostel where not only he and his ensemble were staying, but also the Burundi Drummers.
We were woken rudely in the night by what sounded like a stampeding heard of cattle. It turned out that one of the Burundi Drummers had attempted to enter the dorm where the Malian girls were sleeping. He had been decisively (and forcibly) removed by Oumou.
I have later tried to get Oumou to talk about what exactly happened, but she doesn't want to be reminded of this early period of her -now blooming- career.

Here is a video from the early days of Oumou's career as a solo artist. It is probably from the beginning of 1988, - the year in which she had a huge hit in West-Africa with her cassette "Moussolou".
I especially like the dancer who comes in after 4 minutes. Wow!