Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter and artist Dobet Gnahoré has had music and art coursing through her veins from the very beginning. After growing up in an artist’s village in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghanoré spent the last 25 years creating and sharing original music, which is diversely influenced by a range of new and old African sounds.

She’ll be opening act on the evening main stage at this year’s Vancouver Folk Festival, which returns this year to Jericho Beach Park from July 19 to 21. With this performance, Gnahoré says she’s eager to showcase the continuation of her musical trajectory with her recently-released album, Zouzou.

“I truly let my soul speak based on what I have experienced and heard. I have been making music for almost 25 years, and I see that people appreciate what I offer,” says Gnahoré. “It’s the only way for me to express myself, and I love this unique musical voice that I have developed.”

A personal musical history

Gnahoré says she first became interested in music from the singing of her grandmother, who frequently sang in funeral ceremonies. From an early age, Gnahoré says she was emotionally taken by the feeling and meaning her grandmother embedded into those touching performances.

“She would cry and sing to accompany the dead into the afterlife, and the emotion she put into her songs deeply affected me,” she says. “From then on, I was drawn to singing and the idea of accompanying people to their final resting place.”

And while the seed of musical passion began to sprout, it only grew more as she learned more about her musical roots. At around five or six years of age, Gnahoré left her hometown in central-west Côte d’Ivoire to move to Abidjan, the largest city and former capital of the country. In Abidjan she was raised in the Ki-Yi M’Bock village, a Pan-African artist village co-founded in the mid-1980s by various artists including her father who was a percussionist. Gnahoré says that growing up here deeply inspired her passion for arts even further.

“This village was a place where art and culture were omnipresent: music, dance, painting, sculpture. For me, it was fascinating,” she says.

It was a fortunate upbringing, particularly as Gnahoré faced difficulties with scholarly work, including learning and writing French. Dropping out early to join a dance company, Gnahoré’s passion and life path was headed towards a singular focus.

Gnahoré’s father acknowledged her passion and decided to create an arts-focussed learning module for her and other children in the artist’s village, allowing them to study art forms like music, dance and theatre. In effect, her life became fully ensconced in music and art. For Gnahoré, it’s hard to see her life playing out any other way.

“I only know how to do this. I think like an artist, my whole life is steeped in art,” says Gnahoré.

Sharing a pan-African sound

Years later, Gnahoré says her own artistic voice is deeply influenced by a variety of African musical styles from West and Central Africa, including a mix of rumba, mandingo music and traditional pygmy music, blending it with various afropop and modern dance styles.

Gnahoré says her style looks to pay homage to various African languages and influences to showcase the diverse breadth of musical and cultural history throughout the continent.

“I try to use different African languages to valorize our linguistic heritage and incorporate African rhythms so that they don’t get lost,” she says.

In addition to a focus on pan-African rhythms and stylings, Gnahoré’s work is also consistently characterized by intentional lyricism on pressing social issues and themes, including poverty, injustice, and the place and impact of women and children in society.

Her work is also regularly inspired by love itself – Gnahoré says she is deeply inspired by its impact, adding that love has played a key role in shaping the themes of her latest album, Zouzou.

“The themes of my songs remain constant: love, compassion, helping others, nature, gratitude for life. My songs also address issues like polygamy, incest, deforestation and of course love in all its forms. I write about these themes because they deeply affect me and I want to share them with my audience,” she says.

In all, Gnahoré is eager to return to perform in Vancouver folk fest, where she hopes audiences will resonate with the themes and music on display.

“I am very happy to return to Vancouver, a festival where many artists dream of performing. I can’t wait to meet new people and share our music with them.”

For more information about the festival, visit https://thefestival.bc.ca