Zap Mama
In 2024, Zap Mama will release its first best-of album, a celebration of a richly filled career. Belgian-Congolese artist Marie Daulne is a multi-talented figure: singer, composer, activist, and vocal polyphony teacher. Since the early 1990s, she has led Zap Mama, a polyphonic a cappella women’s quintet that has conquered stages worldwide and even earned a Grammy nomination. Daulne also coined the term “Afropean” to give a name to the bicultural Afro-European generation, sharing her experience of ethnically influenced music and fashion with the world.
Over the past 25 years, Zap Mama has toured the United States, Japan, and Europe, performing and collaborating with top artists such as The Neville Brothers, Al Jarreau, Talib Kweli, Common, Bilal, Questlove, Tony Allen, and Bobby McFerrin. Over the years, the frontwoman moved away from a cappella and gradually evolved her band’s sound into a unique blend of European, American, and African rhythms and traditions.
While living in New York, her fifth album Ancestry in Progress was released in 2004, produced by The Roots, marking a new high point: the beautiful single Bandy Bandy featuring Erykah Badu, which topped the Billboard World Music charts for weeks.