Thiam Diabate & Friends

Karim Thiam was born in Kaolack in Senegal, the country’s ancient hub for music and culture. He developed an active interest in music at five years of age and soon proved to be an artistic multi-talent. He is a guitarist, singer, dancer, and choreographer. Thiam even plays the traditional African drums, sabar and djembe. For the performance at »Hollywood in Vienna« he has assembled a group of six percussionists.

Mamadou Diabate comes from a family of traditional musicians in Burkina Faso. He specialises in numerous percussion instruments that he learned to play from, among others, his own father. Diabate won the first prize at the Natural Cultural Festival of Burkina Faso twice. He settled in Austria in 2000 and has since released 11 CDs featuring his own music. He has also collaborated with artists such as André Heller, Christian Kolonovits, and Jon Sass. His group “Percussion Mania” won the Austrian World Music Award in 2011. Diabate first contributed to »Hollywood in Vienna« in 2017 and is our highly valued consultant for African music.

Hamidou Koita is a singer and multi-instrumentalist born into a traditional Griot family in Burkina Faso. He has played various instruments ever since his earliest childhood. His talent as a singer became apparent very early too. He founded his band »Nandji Groove« in his home country in 2017. First performances in Europe are scheduled for 2020. Today, he is the vocal lead in our BLACK PANTHER arrangement.

Multi-instrumentalist Amadou Fola Balde was born in the Senegalese capital Dakar. He plays the djembe, sabar, and tame. Balde currently resides in Poland, where we works as a musician and drum teacher. Amadou Mboup was born in St. Louis, Senegal, and comes from a family of musicians who tell stories accompanied on instruments such as the sabar bridge harp. Mame Birane Mboup and Badara Gueye, both from Dakar/Senegal, were also born into musical Griot families. They are not only skilled on the sabar bridge harp, but also on the djembe.