Artistul saptamanii 08/05 - 15/05 - Alpha Blondy

Grammy nominated Alpha Blondy was born to a Muslim mother and a Christian father and was brought up by a grandmother who taught him to love everyone. Alpha Blondy's respect for all religions and the spirituality he derives from them can be heard on tracks like "God is One" or "Jerusalem" where he sang for unity between all religions in 1986.
Alpha Blondy is spiritual, political and positive just like Marley himself. And he doesn't stop progressing; in order to reach more people with his message, he chose to sing in many languages: English, French, Baoule, and his own native language – Dioula.
Alpha Blondy has always been a critic of authority. He calls himself a defender of free speech and since his breakthrough with "Brigadier Sabari" has fought against injustice as well as racism, harrasment and corruption. In the year 2000 Alpha denounced the mismanagement of government funds for private gain in the album "les voleurs de la république" (thieves of the republic). Despite the risk, he had the courage to denounce also the mysterious murder of the burkinabè journalist Norbert Zongo. But it was in 1998 that Alpha recorded his most controversial and criticised album: "Yitzhak Rabin". He also wrote a song calling for the departure of the French military arguing that the Ivory Coast and other former French colonies did not need their services anymore, and the track "guerre civile" predicted civil war if the politicians did not stop their corruption.
Alpha Blondy (Seydou Kone) was named United Nations Ambassador of Peace for Côte D'Ivoire in 2005. He made great efforts to bring about a peaceful solution to his country's political and physical division which was a result of an attempted Coup in 2001. As of March 2007 a peace agreement was signed and implemented, due to the hard work of many people including Alpha Blondy. Alpha now reaches out further with the newly created Not-for-Profit, Non Government, Non Political, Charitable Foundation, Alpha Blondy Jah Glory Foundation, which purposely and deliberately work towards ending social injustice and generational poverty by giving people the tools that they need to help themselves.
Talking about Alpha Blondy, people think usually of music and indeed since 1980 he has written at least 17 albums and 194 titles. This itself indicates the great value he represents for his fans. Alpha is no longer an Ivorian star but an International Mega Star because of his fight for peace and unity all around the world.

Website oficial:

http://www.alphablondy.info/index.php