34 Facts About Youssou N'Dour

Youssou N'Dour is a Senegalese singer, songwriter, musician, composer, occasional actor, businessman, and politician.

Youssou N'Dour is the subject of the award-winning films Return to Goree directed by Pierre-Yves Borgeaud and Youssou N'Dour: I Bring What I Love directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, which were released around the world.

In 2006, Youssou N'Dour was cast as Olaudah Equiano in the film Amazing Grace.

Ethnically, Youssou N'Dour is Serer, born to a Serer father and a Toucouleur mother.

Youssou N'Dour started performing at age 12 and would later perform regularly with the Star Band, Dakar's most popular group during the 1970s.

At the age of 15, Youssou N'Dour joined Super Diamono and, in 1975, toured with the band in West Africa.

In 1976 when Youssou 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, Youssou N'Dour would follow as several members of the Star Band left to form Etoile 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.

Youssou N'Dour is one of the most celebrated African musicians in history.

Youssou N'Dour's work absorbed the entire Senegalese musical spectrum, often filtered through the lens of genre-defying rock or pop music from outside Senegalese culture.

In July 1993, Africa Opera composed by Youssou N'Dour premiered at the Opera Garnier for the French Festival Paris quartier d'ete.

In 1994, Youssou N'Dour released his biggest international hit single, the trilingual "7 Seconds", a duet sung with Neneh Cherry.

Youssou N'Dour wrote and performed the official anthem of the 1998 FIFA World Cup with Axelle Red "La Cour des Grands ".

Youssou N'Dour won his first American Grammy Award for his CD Egypt in 2005.

Youssou N'Dour is the proprietor of L'Observateur, one of the widest-circulation newspapers in Senegal, the radio station RFM and the TV channel TFM.

In 2002, Youssou N'Dour was honoured with a Prince Claus Award, under that year's theme "Languages and transcultural forms of expression".

In 2006, Youssou N'Dour played the role of the African-British abolitionist Olaudah Equiano in the movie Amazing Grace, which chronicled the efforts of William Wilberforce to end slavery in the British Empire.

In 2008, Youssou N'Dour offered one of his compositions, Bebe, for the French singer Cynthia Brown.

In 2011, Youssou N'Dour was awarded an honorary doctoral degree in music from Yale University.

In 2013, Youssou N'Dour won a share of Sweden's $150,000 Polar music prize for promoting understanding between faiths as well as for his music.

Youssou N'Dour was nominated as Goodwill Ambassador of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations on 16 October 2000.

In Senegal, Youssou N'Dour became a powerful cultural icon, actively involved in social issues.

Youssou N'Dour worked with the United Nations and UNICEF, and he started Project Joko to open internet cafes in Africa and to connect Senegalese communities around the world.

In 2003, Youssou N'Dour cancelled an upcoming American tour in order to publicly deny support for the upcoming American invasion of Iraq.

Youssou N'Dour performed in three of the Live 8 concerts on 2 July 2005, with Dido.

Youssou N'Dour covered John Lennon's "Jealous Guy" for the 2007 CD Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur.

Youssou N'Dour appeared in a joint Spain-Senegal ad campaign to inform the African public about the dramatic consequences of illegal immigration.

Youssou N'Dour participated in the Stock Exchange of Visions project in 2007.

Youssou N'Dour is a supporter of the Campaign for the Establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly, an organisation which advocates for democratic reformation of the United Nations.

Youssou N'Dour is a member of the Canadian charity Artists Against Racism.

Youssou N'Dour backed the opposition candidate Macky Sall, who defeated Wade in a second round of voting in March 2012.

Youssou N'Dour was appointed as Minister of Culture and Tourism in April 2012 as part of the cabinet of new Prime Minister Abdoul Mbaye.

Youssou N'Dour was dismissed from that post on 2 September 2013, when a new government under Prime Minister Aminata Toure was appointed.

Youssou N'Dour was instead appointed as Special Adviser to the President, with the rank of minister, and tasked with promoting the country abroad.