2022 GLOBAL MUSIC ALBUM OF THE YEAR | Afrikana Soul Sister | | The JUNO Awards

Great is the power of music when honestly combined with the desire to bring people together. For Afrikana Soul Sister, the statement pretty much acts as a motto in addition to summing it all. Led by seasoned Quebec multi-instrumentalist, producer and arranger Jean-François Lemieux (Jean Leloup, Daniel Bélanger, Ariane Moffatt), and completed by Senegalese percussionist Fa Cissokho and Malian singer Djely Tapa (named Révélation CBC/Radio-Canada for the year 2019-2020 in the World Music category), the trio embodies the unclassifiable meeting of West Africa and North America in a vibrant place where tradition and the thirst to create outweigh ego. In response to the ambient individualism, the band conveys a unifying message: that of a universal humanity and openness, supported by both profound and similar values.

Delivering its unique Afro-electro music infused with percussive yet futuristic flavors, Afrikana Soul Sister is the happy collision of landscapes and people who don’t usually tend to intertwine. It is also a reunion of brothers and sisters. Tackling the relationship with nature, strength of work, respect for elders and the beauty of life through lyrics in Mandingo and Wolof dialects, Afrikana Soul Sister manages to achieve an open yet comfortable balance between modernity and tradition.