Anita Mahdia Daulne

Anita Mahdia DAULNE (Congo, Belgium)

Just as her sister Marie, Anita Mahdia considers her double Congo/Belgian roots essential for her work and her musical perception. The music of the ZAP MAMA band founded by the Daulne sisters and publishing its first album in 1991 was based on a-capella traditional African chants arranged to the liking of the singers while accepting other ethnic influences. Their interpretation of folk or folk-inspired songs met with considerable - even commercial - success including a Grammy nomination and repeated high ratings in the record sales charts.

The Daulne sisters describe their activities as bringing African music closer to western audiences and they strive to ¨point out the fact that music is a universal emotion comprehensible regardless of language and culture¨. Anita Mahdia Daulne has traveled Africa north to south and east to west, met many tribes and become acquainted with their musical traditions. Subsequently, she was invited to many European universities and conservatories to lecture on African polyphony. She is convinced that original African music offers more intense experience than can be encompassed by the theory taught at European music schools.

More information can be found at www.afropean-music.com