Amadou Bagayoko of Acclaimed Malian Duo Amadou & Mariam Dead at 70
Mali's Minister of Culture Mamou Daffé said on state TV that Bagayoko died Friday in the city of Bamako, his birthplace. Bagayoko's family confirmed the death, adding that he 'had been ill for a while,' though no cause of death was provided.
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Bagayoko, who became blind at the age of 15 due to a congenital cataract, studied music at Mali's Institute for the Young Blind, where he met his future wife and band mate, Mariam Doumbia, who had been blind since the age of 5. The pair performed together in Mali throughout the Seventies and Eighties before breaking out in Europe in the mid-Nineties.
As Amadou & Mariam, the duo brought Malian music to the world stage, attracting famous fans like Stevie Wonder, David Gilmour, and Damon Albarn; the latter enlisted the duo to take part in his Africa Express project, co-produced their Grammy-nominated 2009 album Welcome to Mali, and recruited Amadou & Mariam to open for Blur during that band's reunion shows in 2009.
Bagayoko's jaunty style of playing — fusing Malian music with a Western rock sound — landed him on Rolling Stone's list of the 250 Best Guitarists. 'People are often surprised when we explain how much we were influenced by Western pop music,' Amadou Bagayoko once told an interviewer. 'I grew up listening to records by Rod Stewart, Led Zeppelin, James Brown, Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Pink Floyd, Stevie Wonder … That's because they were the only records we had in Mali!'
Over the past two decades, Amadou & Mariam were mainstays at music festivals around the world, including Glastonbury, Coachella, and Lollapalooza. The duo also served as opening act for stadium tours by the likes of Coldplay and U2.
Amadou & Mariam's two most recent albums were 2012's Folila — which featured collaborations with TV on the Radio, Santigold, Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Nick Zinner, and Scissor Sisters' Jake Shears — and 2017's La Confusion. In Sept. 2024, the duo took part in the closing ceremony at the 2024 Summer Paralympics in Paris, performing Serge Gainsbourg's 'Je suis venu te dire que je m'en vais.'
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After ‘Eddington:' 7 Offbeat Westerns to Watch Next
We've got some movies that'll scratch that itch Ari Aster's 'Eddington' is here. The movie, which pits a small-town sheriff (Joaquin Phoenix) against his mayor (Pedro Pascal), set during the early days of the global pandemic, is fierce and raw. Considering this is from Aster, the director of 'Midsommar,' 'Hereditary' and 'Beau is Afraid,' it is also confrontational and strange and deeply funny, with the action set at the precipice of the complete breakdown in communication that accompanied lockdown. (Indiewire called it 'the first truly modern American Western.') More from TheWrap After 'Eddington:' 7 Offbeat Westerns to Watch Next 'The Fantastic Four: First Steps' Post-Credits Scenes Explained: Who Was That? Jamie Lee Curtis Watched Her Parents' Success 'Slowly Erode' as They Aged: 'That's Very Painful' 'Coyote vs Acme' Takes Digs at Warner Bros., 2026 Release Date Announced And if you come out of 'Eddington' looking for more offbeat westerns to watch, we've got seven that should fill that void nicely. 'Bad Company' (1972) In the 1960s and 1970s, there was a slew of what were referred to as 'acid westerns' – westerns that were set in the distant past but that embraced the counterculture of the period, including, of course, recreational drug use. (Hence the 'acid' in 'acid western.') These parallels are made explicitly clear in 'Bad Company,' which is one of the very best movies from that era and one of the more underrated. The movie stars Jeff Bridges and Barry Brown (who tragically took his own life before the decade was up) as two young men who dodge the draft during the American Civil War. The movie has an episodic structure, with the pair getting into misadventures along the way, gorgeously shot by legendary cinematographer Gordon Willis, as their wayward drifting transitions to out-and-out lawlessness. If you've seen it and are a fan of it or want to check it out now for the first time, Fun City Editions put out a terrific Blu-ray edition recently that is very much worth checking out. 'Walker' (1987) After making 'Repo Man' and 'Sid & Nancy,' British director Alex Cox turned his sights on a one-of-a-kind western. The movie stars Ed Harris as William Walker, an American physician, lawyer and mercenary who organized military expeditions into Mexico and at one point made himself president of Nicaragua. Like 'Eddington,' 'Walker' leans into the events of recent (and current) history – it was actually filmed in Nicaragua during the Contra War, a conflict that would have major implications for American politics. (Just Google Iran-Contra.) What makes 'Walker' really bonkers is Cox's use of historical anachronisms – there will be a Zippo lighter or a Coke can in scenes, and, if you don't know this going in, it can make you feel like you're going insane. Incredibly, Universal Pictures released the movie, selling it as a more straightforward western (in the trailer you here but never see a helicopter) and it promptly tanked. Since then, it has caught a second wind, and Criterion put out a killer Blu-ray that is very much worth your time. 'Unforgiven' (1992) Aster has openly stated that he was influenced by 'Unforgiven' in making 'Eddington,' and it's both easy and somewhat difficult to see. There is a meandering quality to the story in both 'Unforgiven' and 'Eddington,' and we mean that in a positive. If it's been a while since you've seen the Best Picture-winning Clint Eastwood film, there's a whole section of the movie where the wronged prostitutes hire an assassin named English Bob (Richard Harris), who totally punks out and leaves them high and dry, before they even find Eastwood's 'Will' Munny. There are so many narrative left turns and surprises, which translate to 'Eddington' (we don't want to give anything away), even if 'Unforgiven' is a much more traditional Western in tone and look. But hey, if you were looking for an excuse to rewatch 'Unforgiven,' consider 'Eddington' the reason. 'Lone Star' (1996) John Sayles' masterpiece, set in modern times and starring Chris Cooper as a sheriff who investigates the murder of one of his predecessors (Kris Kristofferson) years earlier, investigates time and how the past impacts the present. (These are things very much in 'Eddington.') 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The movie, which people forget was nominated for four Academy Awards (including Best Picture), follows Chris Pine and Ben Foster, who are robbing banks to save their family ranch. Jeff Bridges is the Texas Ranger on their tail. They both tackle current-day social issues (the pandemic vs. the country's abysmal economic condition) but do it in an incredibly entertaining way, with Scottish director David Mackenzie upping the tension and Nick Cave and Warren Ellis delivering a beautiful, elegiac score (they also scored 'The Proposition,' see above). While 'Hell or High Water' might be more outwardly entertaining, it is still very much of a piece with 'Eddington.' Again: with fewer jokes and conspiracies. The post After 'Eddington:' 7 Offbeat Westerns to Watch Next appeared first on TheWrap.
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Beyoncé surprises fans with Destiny's Child reunion at final Cowboy Carter show
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Beyoncé's surprise Destiny's Child reunion at Vegas concert has fans speculating about new album
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