Elage Diouf is a star in his adopted home of Quebec, after mastering the performance arts of percussion and singing in his birth-country Senegal.
He has produced albums, won music industry awards (Juno, Felix, Galaxie Rising Star and more) and earned the respect of a deep pool of peers in the process. He was tapped this past month to do the induction performance of the Grald Joly superhit Mille Aprs Mille (Mile After Mile) into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, and he was paired with Johnny Reid for the CBC Internet show Rendez-Vous where they performed together so effectively that Reid invited Diouf along on his 46-show national tour.
That cavalcade stops in Prince George on Friday at CN Centre. Diouf, who speaks primarily in his mother tongue of Wolof and his secondary French language, worked with a translator to talk to The Citizen:
Q: What was it about Canada that compelled you to stay, back in 1996 when you first visited?
A: I guess it was only meant to be! Staying in Canada was not my first choice at the start. When I came in Canada for the first time, it was planned that I stay here for two months, and then get back to Senegal.
But I completely fell in love with the city of Montreal. It was summer, weather was good, the city was so alive! It came as a natural decision for me to stay there and try to push my music career here.
Q: What impressions have you formed about the music scene in Canada and your place in it?
A: The music scene in Canada has grown very much in the last years, and still changes today, just like in any country. I made my own way in it. I do think that the world music scene in Canada is a market that should be more developed. In some European countries, this market is quite stable and has some constant visibility.
In Canada, the world music scene gets some room during the summer festivals, but it's more quiet in the other times of the year... I think that some more work should be done, even though there are now great events such as Mundial Montreal, that does create more visibility for the world music scene in Canada.
Q: How was it that you and Johnny Reid ended up in a duet situation on the Rendez-Vous show?
I first met Johnny at the 2011 Junos. My first solo album was nominated for Best World Music Album Of The Year, and at some point I saw Johnny on stage. I felt impressed by his charisma and I was so captured by his voice. Later, when I won the Rvlation Radio-Canada Award, CBC offered me the opportunity to record a few songs with any Canadian artist I wanted, for the Rendez-Vous webseries. There was no hesitation in my mind: I wanted to sing with Johnny Reid. He accepted with great pleasure, which made me so happy! We recorded some new versions of his songs and my songs together, and we created a brand new song that would be one original duet of ours: that was Just One Day.
Q: What was it about that collaboration that kept the relationship with Johnny moving forward together?
A: After the Rendez-Vous, Johnny and I became close friends. We share the same values, the same passion about music, the same wish to push cultural boundaries.
Johnny was born in Scotland, I was born in Senegal and we both left our own part of the world to settle in Canada and pursue a music career. We each have our own music style, we're very different musically, but we do have a strong connection when we perform together.
Johnny's work is always full of passion, generosity and love: his energy is the same I want to be in when I share my music. Each of us brings something good to the other.
Q: What was it like for you to be selected to sing Mille Aprs Mille, an iconic Canadian song?
A: It was such a pleasure and an honor for me to sing Mille Aprs Mille!
When I was shown some song choices to perform for the CSHF, I felt something very quickly with Mille Aprs Mille.
The melody moved me, I just felt the song and I wanted to do it. I was so happy when I was told the song was selected for me! It was a great pleasure to do. The song has crossed the frontiers of time, it's just so powerful by its purity, its simplicity, its truth. It is universal. It was a great honor for me to perform it in my way.
Q: What are you hoping to accomplish in the next years of your musical life?
A: I wish to perform on stages around the world! Performing my music on stage is such a powerful passion to me.
I love to create music and to share it with all different kinds of people. I hope I'll have the opportunity to travel all across the world with my music.
Q: For those of us in far-off B.C., what are some things we should know about you, now that we are meeting you for the first time?
A: Well, as Johnny Reid's friend, I'm so happy I got to join him during his tour and play on stage with him.
I'm having lots and lots of fun. This is my wish as an artist: to perform, to share, to give, to be devoted to love and happiness.
I love people. I love to see the people's face when I share music with them. It's such a great experience to be in contact with all kinds of people, of many colours and many languages, who get together and enjoy ourselves listening to the same songs, even if they don't understand the words. Music makes people get together, no matter who they are or where they're from. For me, to have the opportunity to offer such beautiful human things, is such a passion that I want to keep for many years to come.
