Guitarist and singer Amadou Bagayoko of star Malian music duo Amadou & Mariam has died at age 70 following an illness, his family announced on Friday, April 4, paying tribute to the Grammy-nominated musician. Together with his wife Mariam Doumbia, Amadou formed one half of a group whose blend of traditional Malian music with rock guitars and Western blues saw them sell millions of albums and conquer dance floors across the world.
The pair, both blind, met at the institute for the young blind in the Malian capital Bamako, and among their achievements, composed the official song for the 2006 football World Cup in Germany and played at the closing ceremony concert for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. "He had been ill for a while," said Amadou's son-in-law Youssouf Fadiga.
Their France-based manager Yannick Tardy, who had just spoken to Mariam by phone, said that Amadou was taken to a clinic after feeling fatigued, then died in the afternoon. Confirming the musician's death, Malian culture minister Mamou Daffe said he felt "dismay" at the loss.
After meeting in 1976, when Amadou was 21 and Mariam 18, the pair discovered they had similar tastes in music. They began touring together starting in the 1980s, mixing traditional west African instruments like the kora and balafon with the Pink Floyd and James Brown records from their youth. At the start they sang songs to raise awareness of the problems facing their peers living with blindness and disabilities.
A few decades later their 2004 album Dimanche à Bamako (Sunday in Bamako) brought them worldwide success backed up by the title track. Dubbed "the blind couple from Mali," Amadou and Mariam then became one of Africa's best-selling and beloved pairs, playing alongside the likes of Damon Albarn of Blur and Gorillaz and Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour - a childhood idol.
The duo went on to play at festivals including Glastonbury in England, share bills with Coldplay, U2, and Stevie Wonder and play for Barack Obama at the concert marking the US president's Nobel Peace Prize award.
"There were many musicians, many artists there. And Barack Obama came to meet us," Amadou said during a 2024 interview. "We talked a bit. Barack Obama told us that he liked our music. Malian music too. We were very, very happy," Mariam added. Besides a Grammy nomination in 2010, Amadou & Mariam also won prizes at the BBC radio awards and France's Victoires de la Musique.
Amadou Bagayoko is survived by three children.