In 1978, Youssou N'Dour met the singer and songwriter El Hadji Faye. Together with Badou Ndiaye, they created the band Étoile de Dakar.
At that time, Afro-Cuban music was still very popular in Senegal. The group wanted to create a modern urban Senegalese music, so they slowly moved away from Afro-Cuban styles.
They created a new musical style called Mbalax. It mixes singing and melodies with rhythms from the sabar (a traditional rhythm, dance, and drum), and also includes influences from jazz, pop, rock, soul, and funk.
Mbalax uses both traditional instruments (like sabar drums and tama) and modern instruments (guitar, bass, drums, keyboards, and brass).
Senegalese people quickly liked this music because it reflects their culture. It was recorded the same year in the song Xalis (“money”).
First pressing of this first album is very clean condition. Record is strong VG+ plays great check the actual audio on our instagram post / Sleeve is strong VG+ (very light wear, clean seams, no ring wear)
