Danish magazine Musikeren writes about Spot On Mali Music

The Copenhagen based Musikeren (The Musician) writes in it's January 2016 edition about Spot On Mali Music. Here an article desribes the project, while another interviews a young Malian singer, Hawa Dem, who currently is a student at the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers Multimédia
Balla Fasséké Kouyaté, the full name for the music conservatory in Mali normally known as CAMM.

Spot On Mali Music is the result of a six year partnership between CAMM and it's counterpart in Aarhus in Denmark, The Royal Academy of Music Aarhus/Aalborg, as well as institutions like CKU in Copenhagen and the Danish Embassy in Bamako, Mali.

Each students there is an exchange of students between the two countries, as well as with music schools in Finland and Sweden. One of these students was Hawa Dem - short for Dembelé - who just returned to Bamako from Denmark.

The article describes the project and Hawa's life, in which she has become part of a very exciting trio with two former exchange students who were studying in Bamako, Clara Aaholm from The Royal Academy in Aarhus/Aalborg & Marjo Smolander from The Sibelius Academy of Music in Helsinki, Finland.

Read Musikeren here (in Danish):

http://online.musikeren.dk/musikeren/163/

Spot On Mali Music presents the Artists Selected for the festival january 2016

Spot On Mali Music are proud to present the 12 artists, who have been selected to participate in the showcase festival, Spot On Mali Music, which takes place at Maison des Jeunes in Bamako on January 8 & 9.

The artists were selected by a jury in Mali and abroad, and out of 35 artists we managed to find the 12 artists, who will be presented on stage at the festival. 8 were selected through a national search for talent, and 4 were the winners at special Pre-Spot Selections held in Bamako, where two from each of two music schools were selected. The schools are CAMM - The National Music Conservatory - and I.N.A. The National Arts Institute.

These are the artists:

Coumba Sira Koita
Groupe Palmer
Pamela Badjogo
Aba Djitéye
Manding Color
Nene Diabaté
HiNiZi
Madou Sidiki Diabaté
Amy Wassidije
Charles Niaré
Sira Kouyate
Mama Diakité

We are extremely grateful towards all the artists, who responded to our invitation to send videoclips and other material to us, and we were humbled by the task of selecting between a number of extremely exciting artists, who proved to us, that Mali is as rich as ever, when it comes to it's music and talent.

The festival in Bamako is free. If you are in the lovely city, please come by Maison des Jeunes.

Songhoy Blues nominated for important award

In 2014 Songhoy Blues from Mali played at our festival Spot On Mali Music 1st edition at Maison des Jeunes. The band who plays a modern version of the Takamba music from their hometown Gao have now been nominated for the important Q Award in the category Best New Artist.

It is a very important award, and a recognition, that the band from Mali reaches out way beyond the usual category of World Music Artist and have broken into the main stream.

The band have had an incredible rise since they played at Maison des Jeunes. Heavily promoted by the superstar Damon Albarn, they have played at festivals and venues this poast year promoting their debut album.

Bow they are at the brink of one of the great prizes in the music business. We congratulate Songhoy Blues with the nomination and hold our fingers crossed.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/q-awards-2015-blur-and-noel-gallagher-renew-rivalry-as-african-refugee-band-songhoy-blues-breaks-10514177.html