Youssou N'Dour

Acting

Youssou N'Dour

Born 1959-10-01 · Dakar, Senegal

Youssou N'Dour (also known as Youssou Madjiguène Ndour; born 1 October 1959) is a Senegalese singer, songwriter, musician, composer, occasional actor, businessman, and politician. In 2004, Rolling Stone described him as, "perhaps the most famous singer alive" in Senegal and much of Africa and in 2023, the same publication ranked him at number 69 on its list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time. From April 2012 to September 2013, he was Senegal's Minister of Tourism. N'Dour helped develop a style of popular Senegalese music known by all Senegambians (including the Wolof) as mbalax, a genre that has sacred origins in the Serer music njuup tradition and ndut initiation ceremonies. He is the subject of the award-winning films Return to Gorée (2007) directed by Pierre-Yves Borgeaud and Youssou N'Dour: I Bring What I Love (2008) directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, which were released around the world. In 2006, N'Dour was cast as Olaudah Equiano in the film Amazing Grace. Ethnically, N'Dour is Serer, born to a Serer father and a Toucouleur mother. However, culturally, N'Dour is Wolof. He was born in Dakar. He started performing at age 12 and would later perform regularly with the Star Band, Dakar's most popular group during the 1970s. Despite N'Dour's maternal connection to the traditional griot caste, he was not raised in that tradition, which he learned instead from his sibling. Although patrilineally from the noble N'Dour family, his parents' world-view encouraged a modern outlook, leaving him open to two cultures and thereby inspiring N'Dour's identity as a modern griot. As a Mouride disciple, taalibé in Wolof, a Muslim of the Mouride brotherhood, one of the large four Sufi orders in Senegambia, he often incorporated aspects of Islamic music and chants into his work. At the age of 15, Youssou N'Dour joined Super Diamono and, in 1975, toured with the band in West Africa. In 1976 when N'Dour was 16 years old, he signed a contract to sing with Ibra Kasse's Star Band at Kasse's Miami club in Dakar where he would become a sensation. In 1978, N'Dour would follow as several members of the Star Band left to form Étoile de Dakar, a band that made important contributions to Senegal's newly evolving musical style called mbalax which incorporated traditional Senegalese music into the Latin styles that had dominated Senegalese popular music. Although they quickly became one of the city's most popular bands, the group was short-lived due to internal problems. Étoile de Dakar split into two groups: Étoile 2000 and Super Étoile de Dakar. The latter group included N'Dour, guitarist Jimi Mbaye, bassist Habib Faye, and tama (talking drum) player Assane Thiam. Super Étoile de Dakar produced four albums on cassette in just a few months and eventually evolved into N'Dour's backing band. By 1991, he had opened his own recording studio, and, by 1995, his own record label, Jololi. ... Source: Article "Youssou N'Dour" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Acting credits

Amazing Grace poster
6.9

The true story of William Wilberforce and his courageous quest to end the British slave trade. Along the way, Wilberforce meets intense opposition, but his minister urges him to see the cause through.

Amazing Grace

2006

Picc Mi poster
5.4

Follows the story of two young boys and their adventure through the streets of Africa.

Picc Mi

1992

Xala poster
6.9

A rich businessman in Senegal is cursed with crippling erectile dysfunction upon the day of his marriage to his third wife; the only cure is brutal public humiliation.

Xala

1975

No artwork available
NR

“In 2015, Jason Silverman and Samba Gadjigo released the acclaimed feature documentary SEMBÈNE!, on the life and career of Ousmane Sembène. For the following short documentary, the filmmakers have assembled footage from interviews that were not included in the original film, including musician Youssou N’Dour, activist and author Angela Davis, author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, filmmaker Clarence Delgado, and filmmaker and scholar Manthia Diawara” (Criterion Collection).

Praise Song

2021

Live 8 poster
7.4

On 2 July 2005 an estimated 3 billion people came together in the fight against extreme poverty. LIVE 8 - 10 concerts featuring over 1000 musicians from across the globe - asked people not for their money, but for their voice.

Live 8

2005

Lest We Forget poster
7.0

A compilation of 30 French filmmakers, Alain Resnais and Jean Luc Godard among them, who use film to make a plea on behalf of a political prisoner. Jean Luc Godard and Anne Marie Mieville's film concerns the plight of Thomas Wanggai, West Papuan activist who has since died in prison. The short films were commissioned by Amnesty International.

Lest We Forget

1991

Le meilleur des Francofolies poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Le meilleur des Francofolies

2026

Peter Gabriel - POV poster
8.0

An all-Gabriel performance featuring some of Gabriel's own 8mm work, personal footage from the two Amnesty International tours, a trip he took to the USSR and even home movies. Also live performances of "This Is the Picture," "Shock the Monkey," "Games Without Frontiers," "No Self Control," plus more. Executive produced by Martin Scorcese.

Peter Gabriel - POV

1991

Dreadtown: The Steel Pulse Story poster
NR

They have raged on for forty years, cutting a swath across continents and lighting the fuse of revolutionary thought. From the pressure-cooker ghettos of England to the mighty gates of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, one band has forged an enduring legacy. This is their story.

Dreadtown: The Steel Pulse Story

Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute poster
6.5

Wembley Stadium hosts a concert featuring stars from the fields of music, comedy and film, in celebration of the 70th birthday of imprisoned ANC leader Nelson Mandela. Highlight of the evening is the one hour live performance of Dire Straits feat. Eric Clapton.

Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute

1988

8 poster
5.4

8 shorts centered around 8 themes directed by 8 famous film directors involved and sharing their opinion on progress, on the set-backs and the challenges our planet faces today.

8

2008

Omar Sy, c'est ta chance poster
6.0

No synopsis available yet.

Omar Sy, c'est ta chance

2018

Return to Gorée poster
9.0

Because jazz is the miraculous product of the horror of slavery, Youssou N'Dour returned to the slave route and the music they created, in search of new inspiration. Accompanied by the blind Swiss pianist Moncef Genoud and the Director of the Gorée House of Slaves Museum, Joseph N'Diaye, the Senegalese singer wrote new songs during this initiatory voyage which took him to the USA then to Europe. At Gorée, an island just off the Senegalese coast and symbol of the slave trade, his memorable concert marked the end of this quest and the start of a new challenge: making today's generation aware of the tragedy of slavery, the importance of not forgetting and the need for reconciliation.

Return to Gorée

2007

Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame: In Concert 2014-2017 poster
NR

Highlights from the 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 induction ceremonies. Bruce Springsteen joining inductees the E Street Band for the deep-cut classic The E Street Shuffle from the Boss’s second album, from 1973. Legendary grunge-rock group Pearl Jam delivering thundering performances of Alive, Given to Fly and Better Man. The two surviving members of Nirvana joined on stage by Lorde, Annie Clark, Kim Gordon and Joan Jett for emotional renderings of the group’s biggest hits. Cat Stevens performing a spine-tingling version of Father & Son that rendered the massive Barclays Center quiet as a church. Journey performing three classic cuts: Separate Ways (Worlds Apart), Lights and Don't Stop Believin'. Ringo Starr being welcomed into the Rock Hall with a little help from Paul McCartney. Features complete Hall of Fame induction speeches, including: Coldplay’s Chris Martin inducting Peter Gabriel Metallica’s Lars Ulrich inducting Deep Purple.

Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame: In Concert 2014-2017

2018

Africa Rising poster
7.5

How African artists have spread African culture all over the world, especially music, since the harsh years of decolonization, trying to offer a nicer portrait of this amazing continent, historically known for tragic subjects, such as slavery, famine, war and political chaos.

Africa Rising

2019

Peter Gabriel: Live in Athens 1987 poster
7.8

Including Youssou N'Dour And Le Super Etoile De Dakar In October 1987. After many months on the road, it was in the elevated surroundings of the hillside open-air theatre at Lycabettus overlooking Athens that the So tour came to a climactic close. The three nights were filmed in what was the first-ever Peter Gabriel concert to be committed to film.

Peter Gabriel: Live in Athens 1987

2013

Bruce Springsteen - Human Rights Final - Buenos Aires poster
8.0

No synopsis available yet.

Bruce Springsteen - Human Rights Final - Buenos Aires

1988

Taratata fête les 40 ans de Bercy poster
8.0

No synopsis available yet.

Taratata fête les 40 ans de Bercy

2024

Mosaïque poster
9.0

Broadcast from 1977 to 1987 on FR3, every Sunday morning, for 1h30, Mosaïque is a variety show with a set where music groups from the countries of origin of immigration perform, and which broadcasts reports on these countries and on immigrants who live in France. When it was created, it aimed to promote the cultures of origin of immigrants, but also to make them better known to the rest of the population. However, the program was never financed by public television which considers that it was aimed at a specific audience and was therefore not part of a public service mission. It received financial support from the Ministry of Labor, through its subsidy to the National Office for the Cultural Promotion of Immigrants, ONPCI (later becoming Information Culture and Immigration, ICEI, in 1977, then Agency for the Development of Intercultural Relations , ADRI). , in 1982).

Mosaïque

1976

Cirque du Soleil: Midnight Sun poster
7.7

On July 11 2004, over 200,000 spectators filled the downtown streets of Montreal to take part in a unique celebration, an incredible one-night-only special event! With more than 250 artists, Midnight Sun is a brilliant combination of music and circus - the perfect chemistry of sight and sound. An unforgettable viewing experience filmed in high definition!

Cirque du Soleil: Midnight Sun

2004

The Paris Concert for Amnesty International poster
NR

This production, mounted December 10, 1998, commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a milestone underscored with between-songs informational segments that succinctly promote the beneficiary's themes of tolerance and social responsibility. Filmed and live cameos mix celebrities with sage comments from the Dalai Lama (whose impish "thumbs up" to the crowd elevates the entire affair) and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. An underlying fervor also sparks much of the music, particularly from Peter Gabriel, Youssou N'Dour, Tracy Chapman, and a solo Bruce Springsteen, whose songs all allude to the human rights agenda. Alanis Morissette's brief set likewise takes on a spiritual glow consistent with both her second solo album and the context at hand, while jubilant sets from Kassav and the Asian Dub Foundation serve as potent multicultural celebrations.

The Paris Concert for Amnesty International

1998

The Secret Policeman’s Third Ball poster
7.5

When the British Amnesty shows finally resumed in 1987 after a six-year hiatus, the show format was retooled in an effort to take advantage of the growing number of rock musicians supporting Amnesty. Instead of the live show being primarily a comedy show with a few musical cameos, the event made a point of giving equal emphasis to the comedy and the music.

The Secret Policeman’s Third Ball

1987

Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love poster
8.0

Senegalese pop sensation Youssou Ndour has spent the last 20 years in the spotlight as a world-renowned musician and the iconic representative "voice of Africa." At the height of his career, Youssou became frustrated by the negative perception of his Muslim faith and composed Egypt, a deeply spiritual album dedicated to a more tolerant view of Islam. The album's brave musical message was wholeheartedly embraced by Western audiences but ignited serious religious controversy in his homeland of Senegal. The film chronicles the difficult journey Youssou must undertake to assume his true calling.

Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love

2008

Human Rights Now 25th Anniversary poster
NR

Human rights now concert from Argentina, Estadio River Plate, Buenos Aires

Human Rights Now 25th Anniversary

1988