Fatoumata Diawara

The Cosmopolite Scene is the heart of Oslo World Music Festival. The walls are dark red, and pictures of famous bluesmen and jazz players are hanging on the walls.
A microphone stands tall in the middle of the scene with a rich kit of guitar pedals on the floor. On the left side there’s a guitar, then a double keyboard, a drum set and the bass on the right side of the stage.

The band comes on the stage first. The bass and guitar players wear the same colorful shirt. I’ve tried to track the names of the performers, without luck. You can see the lineup if you check the video of Higher Ground on setlist.fm.

Then comes Fatoumata. She is wearing a red dress with a white veil on the waist, red shoes and a white head band that moves all the time and goes over her eyes while she sings. She wears also very colorful jewelry, shells and hairbands on her breaded hair.

You can check the whole setlist here.
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/fatoumata-diawara/2018/cosmopolite-oslo-norway-b967936.html

There are sweet, slow songs like Don Do, Nterini and Fenfo.
However the majority of the songs are catchy and easy to dance, especially thanks to the support of the bass and guitar that take the lead of the rhythm in turns.

Fatoumata moves around the stage and dances a lot, interacting with the audience, looking people right in the eyes.

During some songs Fatoumata turns into a sorceress, constantly moving performing the sacred ritual of rock catharsis. This is what I came here for. As Patti Smith cleverly pointed out, the rock concert can lead to healing ecstasy.

Fatoumata introduces many of her songs with a political speech. All of her songs are politically laden and hopefully will facilitate cultural change in her home country.
These introductory speeches however are the part I liked the less about the concert. My impression is that Fatoumata states quite obvious things. I understand the almost revolutionary power of this artist, but I cannot connect with statements that are so self-evident.

Fatoumata Diawara is such an individual musician who is originally from the Ivory Coast, born to Malian parents. She moved to France to pursue a career in acting and of course landing some fantastic roles, such as Cissoko’s 1999 film La Ganèse and Kouyatés film Sia, le reve du python. It’s almost as though she was satisfied with her success in film and acting as she gravitated a little bit more towards music, taking up the guitar and writing songs that featured traditional Southern Mali music and some large world music influences.

It is such an honour to witness what she does live. She performs with such energy and confidence that exudes from her being. Her voice is so distinct as she performs songs such as “Bakonoba” and “Kele”. Her genre is so distinct, and she is extremely charismatic with the way that she performs. She rounds off her set with “Sowa”, encouraging the audience to dance, which isn’t difficult at all with how percussive her music is.

I became aware of Fatoumata Diawara as a result of the "Lamomali" album and tour she participated in last year with Matthieu Chedid (aka -M-), Toumani Diabate, and Sidiki Diabate last year. She's female empowerment personified - strong, confident, uplifting, and wise. She has a very engaging stage presence and treats her audience as guests, and the audience returns that respect and admiration. Between her warm and earthy vocals, her skill on the guitar, and her dancing, there is an oasis of beauty and grace in a parched and over processed musical world. Fatomata Diwara is organic and natural; and from what I've heard of her new album "Nterini", that's just the beginning of her story.

The concert was superb. Unfortunately on the last song when Fatoumata was going to collaborate with Roberto Fonseca, there was a fire alarm issue which required the venue to be evacuated. Otherwise the show was excellent.

Fatoumata's voice was aliitle raspy at the beginning of the show but she sounded better as the concert progressed.

Roberto Fonseca's bandvwas very entertaining but I wished Roberto and Fatoumata could have played more songs together.

Nonetheless the concert was excellent!!!

What an amazing show!!! I would go again and again, to say it was fantastic is an understatement. Her presence is so engaging, her voice like an instrument. She is a great performer and engages the crowd. Full of love, light and talent. She invited us on the stage the last song it was so fun to dance with like 30 people in the front row. The band was also very impressive. I highly recommend this performer.

She's so amazing my jaw was on the floor during most of the concert. Une bête de scène. Meilleur concert de cette année pour moi. J'aurai aimé que les salles de concerts soient plus gra des car vu le talent qu'elle a et la demande qu'il y a pour des places elles pourrait remplir de plus grandes salles et ce serait plus confortable pour le public

Fatoumata was amazing; it was so nice to see her in person and listen to her in such close proximity. Her music is very organic, I love her authenticity and how she interacts with the audience.
I hope to see her next time on a bigger stage.

Tony, fan forever!

Fatoumata Diawara was so beautiful and great!
Amazing performance in Mexico City. Fatoumata is an amazing singer, songwriter, musician and storyteller. Beautiful songs, and great performance. That is the
kind of crepuscular beauty that Fatoumata Diawara imparts.

Absolutely incredible.

The songs, the voice, the band, the dancing, the venue,the atmosphere... everything.

Inviting members of the audience on the stage at the end made for a sensational and memorable encore

Wow, what a woman, an incredible musician with an immensely powerful and passionate voice, but what a performer. She had the whole theatre up and dancing in the isles, incredible!