Amadu Babayoko, half of the global Marian duo, died at age 70

Marian guitarist and composer Amadu Bakayoko, who formed his wife, singer Mariam Dumbia, invented a widely accessible sound that killed fans of people all over the world who had little knowledge of African music in the capital of Mali. He was 70 years old.

His death was announced by the Mali government, but it offered no cause. He and Dumbia lived in Bamako.

In the late 2000s and early 2010s, Amadou & Mariam was regularly described as the most successful African musical act of the new century.

Growing up listening to Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, Babayoko called their sound “Afrorock,” and regularly paired the thrilling West African Zinbedrums with his winding guitar solos.

However, the group's music has also evolved consistently. Their breakout hit, their 2005 album, Dimanche à Bamako, turned chatty, sirens, crowd hubs and urban sounds into melody. Conversely, the 2008 album “Welcome To Mali” opened with the song “Sabali,” featuring Damon Albarn from the artistic hip-hop group Gorillaz, embracing funk's electronic style.

What was consistent was the sweet and elegant sound that still had the power to build on Crescendos, and Ms. Dumbia's alto achieved a clear and comfortable resonance to the rich orchestration.

Babayoko also sang. The couple's lyrics were mainly French and West African Bambara. Although politics influenced some of their songs, they often identified local topics that could have a broader appeal, such as the 2004 song “Senegal Fast Food.”

Amadow and Mariam were often grouped into a derived genre known as “world music,” but as the term felt guilty, this was a time when many young Americans began to love African musicians. Around the same time, American stars like Bonnie Raitt and Rye Cooder made pilgrimage to Bamako to jam with local artists.

“They're going to go back to classic rock and real musicianship and do Harken,” Jake Sears, the lead singer of American indie pop band Scissor Sisters, told The Times in 2012.

The origins of that training and skills lie in the couple's background. Each of their lives was largely dependent on music. Babayoko and Dumbia were born in vision, but both became blind as children due to poor treatment.

Amadou Bagayoko was born on October 24, 1954 in Bamako. His father, Ibrahima Bagayogo, was a brick family instructor, and his mother, Mariam Diala, devoted himself to raising 14 children.

Amadou was born with cataracts with milky eyes, but he gradually became blind. The doctor later told the family that the boy's real problem was actually a trachoma infection, which was too late. In Mali, it would have been impossible to receive a corneal transplant, which could have saved Amadou's vision.

“At that time,” Babayoko wrote in her joint memoir, “Away from Days and Away from Days” (2010).

Essentially from his childhood, Amadow became accustomed to “making his grief own with music,” he writes. He was enough with enough flute and harmonica for the teacher to ask him to perform the national anthem of Mali after class every day.

An idea formed in his young mind. “Music,” he wrote, “it would be my passage from poverty.”

At about the age of 13, my uncle began teaching Amadou the guitar. He quickly realized that he could distinguish guitars by manufacturer based on sound.

Eventually, Amadou was playing with Rebassadale du Motel, one of Mali's most famous music groups. He also began attending the Institute for Young Blinds, Mali's first school for the blind. The teenage girl there was highly praised for her song: Mariam Doumbia. She was blind from the unprocessed measles from age 5.

Mariam showed Amadou's lyrics, writing about the harsh reality that it is invalidated in Mali. Amadow began setting her songs to music.

They played together as friends and collaborators for years. In 1980, Babayoko, who danced at a party, declared that his true feelings for her were romantic. Dumbia kissed him. “I felt the door to the opening of paradise,” he wrote in their memoirs.

The local press covered the marriage of two respected blind musicians. Concert promoters from nearby African countries have begun offering them. They expanded their repertoire from their native Bambara to other languages ​​like Tuareg and Senufo. Fans called them Mari's blind couple.

By 1996 they were able to move to Paris and record albums there, and now they sing in French. That led to “Je Pense à Toi.”

Musical globetrotter Manuchao produced “Dimanche Bamako” and helped write the lyrics for some of the songs. The album became an international hit, selling over 100,000 copies in France alone in just a week.

The couple has won prominent bills at American music festivals like Bonnaroo and All Points West, alongside bands popular in the mid-2000s, including Radio Head, Kings of Leon and Animal Collective.

In 2009 they opened at several stadium shows for Cold Play. In the same year, they performed at a concert in honor of Nobel Peace Prize winner President Barack Obama, who met Obama himself.

Their production fell in the 2010s and 2020s, but they performed together as they did last summer during the Paris Paralympics match in Paris. As of Sunday, their website still lists dates for their European tours in May and June.

Babayoko and Dumbia had three children, including her son Sam. Full information about the survivors was not immediately available.

One of the couple's last international hits was “Bofou Safou,” released in 2017. There was a paradox suitable for couples who devoted their lives to music. The lyrics advise young men to focus less on the dance and more on their work, but the cheerful and groovy beats challenge you to not dance.