Biography

Youssou N'Dour was born on October 1, 1959 in Dakar, Senegal. He is a composer and actor, known for Amazing Grace (2006), Judge Dredd (1995) and Alone in the Dark (2005). He has been married to Aida Coulibaly since 2006.

One of Africa's most internationally successful recording artists.

Singer.

He is famous throughout Africa and very popular in Europe, but most North American listeners only know him from his guest vocals near the end of Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes". However, in addition to Peter Gabriel, he has performed with Bruce Springsteen, Sting, Paul Simon, Tracy Chapman, Neneh Cherry, Dido, Lou Reed, Bruce Cockburn, Branford Marsalis and Wyclef Jean.

Special thanks to my friend Peter Gabriel for all that he has done for me and for music in general. Africa thanks him for being the biggest promoter of music without frontiers.

There were a few good albums, but too often those companies had too much influence. I think that's what helped cause the friction with the big labels like Virgin who'd signed me to a big contract thinking that in no time I'd be selling just like Phil Collins. And so there were experiences that didn't go too well.