OUMOU SANGARÉ & BÉLA FLECK 

The songbird of Mali, Oumou Sangaré, and the world’s premier banjo player, Béla Fleck, will shared the stage for two nights at the Southbank Centre’s Africa Utopia Festival on July 18 and 19, 2012.

Oumou and Béla started their collaboration in 2005 when Béla took the banjo back to its ancestral home of West Africa and collaborated with some of the continent’s greatest musicians, resulting in the multi-award winning documentary and recording‘Throw Down Your Heart’.

Sangaré and Fleck were joined by an electrifying live band featuring Will Calhounon drums and percussion, ‘Benogo’ Diakite on kamele n’goni, Sekou Bah on bass and Dandio Sidibe on backing vocals.