Festival International Nuits d'Afrique 2025

Title: SABOR 19

Description: Extremely passionate about Latin music, the ultimate goal of this band is to get the crowd dancing! Its combination of spirited salsa and cumbia is so irresistible, you’d think it was coming straight out of some famous Havana cabaret. The brass section roars to life while the percussionists respond with wild enthusiasm as the band seamlessly alternates between covers and original compositions. Sabor 19 offers a fully immersive atmosphere that feels like a super joyful street party. You can just feel the heat!

Title: NAXX BITOTA

Description: “Her voice is so gentle that, in each of her songs, Naxx Bitota seems to want to take us into her arms,” praised Le Devoir following the launch of her album Kuetu in June 2022. In all her moods, from the most festive to the most melancholic, her smooth voice is remarkable, moving, resounding. Her stage presence is impressive. NAXX BITOTA’s joyful and endearing spirit embodies the strength, determination and splendor of the Congolese woman. At times she might remind us of Tchala Muana, Queen of Mutuashi. Other times, her Sebene-style rumba takes centre stage, with long, improvised guitar sequences, flirting with the Soukous beat. But NAXX BITOTA always adds her militant and personal touch infused to modern afropop, making it all irresistible. Known for her music, which blends African rhythms with Afropop and Mutuashi, a unique traditional style from the Democratic Republic of Congo, NAXX BITOTA builds bridges between her native culture and all those she encounters throughout her career, particularly with Quebec, her adopted country for the past 16 years. She will present her new album called “64” on July 15 during the 39th Edition of the Festival International Nuit d’Afrique In a show that offers a unique sonic experience and focuses on sustainable development and the empowerment of women.

Title: Def Mama Def

Description: Brace yourselves! Fiery to the point of being brazen, always energetic and bold, Def Mama Def have no qualms about pushing boundaries. Channelling the spirit of Doudou N’Diaye Rose while championing the cause of women, these two powerful lionesses vigorously pound their drums, merging the beats with their invigorating hip hop chants and crisp pop rhythms that include elements of trap, afrobeat and amapiano. “The most exciting and refreshing musical revelation to come out of Senegal since African folk and dance music first conquered the West’s music charts and concert stages” (Le Devoir, 2024).

Title: MO’KALAMITY

Description: “Guided by her love of the old-school reggae played by seasoned artists, Mo’Kalamity learned how to transcend some of the genre’s standards” (RFI, 2024). Sensitive, genuine, complete and radiant, the artist exudes an almost mystical aura, the kind that penetrates the soul. With her silky voice, this singer-songwriter and producer, inspired by the likes of Bob Marley, the Wailers and Burning Spear, delivers roots reggae that embraces freedom and the need to rise up. On her latest album, Shine (2024), Mo’Kalamity collaborated with the legendary Sly Dunbar.

Title: Bab L’ Bluz

Description: Their first album, Nayda! (2020), named for Morocco’s new wave of counter-culture urban artists that led to a musical revolution, received widespread acclaim by major media outlets around the world. The band tours the globe with their “potion of supercharged, rock’n’roll ‘Gnawa of the future’” (RFI, 2024). Lovers of freedom, outraged by injustice, the Moroccan singer-songwriter Yousra Mansour and French musician Brice Bottin propel the amped-up sounds of guembris and aouicha far and wide, as if determined to make themselves heard. Drawing on the spirit of psychedelic rock, they usher gnawa trance, amazigh chants and chaabi polyrhythms into a new dimension. Their second album, Swaken, was released in 2024.

Title: DJ SETS – POTATO

Description: The best of world music

Title: BLAIZ FAYAH

Description: Blaiz Fayah is a true marvel and his music is spreading all over the internet like wildfire. “The deep and heavy programmed bass, clean but kind of badass too, fills the space at a ‘not too high’ BPM” (RFI, 2023). This tireless artist is king and a purist when it comes to shatta, a completely Martinican subgenre of Jamaican dancehall that really stirs the soul. In his super-codified creations, though, you can sometimes pick out subtle hints of zouk and kompa, making them all the more tantalizing. On stage, everyone goes wild as the DJ gets down with his musicians and dancers, drawing the audience into the party. Blaiz Fayah is currently on a world tour to showcase his brand-new album, Shatta Ting.

Title: Sal de Calle

Description: The best of world music

Title: LERIE SANKOFA

Description: “Percussions, dance, singing and, here, the handpan (a harmonic metal percussive instrument): Lerie Sankofa masters all these arts with such ease that she could easily make others jealous. But most of all, she leaves her listeners in awe” (RFI, 2024). With focused determination, Lerie began drumming and singing in choirs at an early age. She went on to hone her skills at the Institut National des Arts et de l’Action Culturelle and the reputable Village Ki-Yi arts centre in Abidjan. At the 2023 Jeux de la Francophonie, she won Bronze and was the 2024 MASA winner of the “Prix Henriette Dagri Diabaté de la création feminine.” Her afrolight music, in which you can feel the magic of Africa’s forests and savannahs, features the ahoko, traditional instrument of the Baule people, combined with modern influences such as reggae, coupé-décalé, even slam and rap. With a presence as graceful as it is passionate, a voice as powerful as her drumming, Lerie sings in Guro, Malinké and French as she celebrates unity and dialogue among peoples.

Title: KOZÉ

Description: In Reunionese Creole, “kozé” means “to speak, to communicate,” and that’s how this group spreads its island’s folk traditions. With roulèr, kayamb, piker and sati rhythms providing the tempo, Kosé’s music is 100% maloya: as wild and refreshing as the ocean, as dense and precious as the forest, as rugged and impetuous as a volcano! Inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2009, maloya retains the memory and mixed heritage of slaves from the past as a kind of protest anthem, and its quasi-sacred aura means that it is much more than traditional songs, music and dance—it has become the island’s identity.

Title: LES MAMANS DU CONGO X Rrobin

Description: “Percussions, kitchen utensils, electronic rhythms, bass and afro-beats help carry the choruses and rap vocals of these female artists” (FIP, 2023). Led by the candid and charismatic Gladys Samba, this extraordinary afro-feminist group, hailed by audiences and media around the world, fervently defends women’s place in society, underscored by their use of kitchen tools as percussion instruments. What a powerful message! Their potent mix of tender Bantu lullabies, wise teachings of Congolese women, ancestral chants punctuated by hip hop rhythms and fast, syncopated electro beats concocted by producer Rrobin, it’s impossible not to be moved by these inspiring mamas of the Congo.

Title: Idriss LeViking Noir

Description: As his name suggests, Idriss le Viking Noir sets the stage ablaze with his fiery energy. Twenty-five years into his musical career, Tonton Idriss is never at a loss for words, and he certainly knows how to light up a crowd with his performances. Against a backdrop of exuberant mandinka rhythms, courtesy of his band of seasoned musicians, this wise, slightly rebellious man becomes a friendly, easy-going conqueror who draws on his background as an entertainer to spread his wisdom and tell life’s story in his powerful voice with a hint of a reggae accent.

Title: DJ SETS – SAMIA

Description: The best of world music

Title: Labess

Description: “Labess is full of vitamin B, that is to say, vitamin Bliss!” (France Inter, 2024). The band has certainly taken flight since its first concerts in Montreal over 20 years ago! In late 2024, the group, whose leader Nedjim Bouizzoul is now based in Brittany, celebrated their fifth album to a full house at the Olympia in Paris and is now heading back to where it all began. With Nedjim’s impassioned, raspy voice accompanied by musicians of different origins, Labess delivers a gypsy-chaâbi that emphasizes the shared traits of popular Maghrebi and Eastern European rhythms in an ambience reminiscent of the exuberance of Algerian dance celebrations, where melancholy is swallowed up by the festivities. The group’s latest album, Dima libre, was released in 2024.

Title: JSM L’Officiel

Description: The best of world music

Title: Mateus Vidal – Axé Experience

Description: The best of world music

Title: Dicko Fils

Description: “I try to mix traditional with modern so that our music is great to listen and dance to.” This master ngoni player, a real star in the “land of honest people,” sings in Dyula, Fula, Mooré and French. His song “Denké-Denké,” a combination of traditional Fula music, afrobeat and mandinka blues, uplifted by the singer’s multi-octave vocal range, earned him a string of awards in West Africa and sent him touring the globe. This year, to celebrate the 20th year of his musical career, Dicko Fils released his 12th album, La Route (Disques Nuits d’Afrique, 2025).

Title: MELODJI

Description: Like Rokia Traoré, Amadou & Mariam and Marema, Melodji took part in the Prix Découvertes RFI, for which she was a finalist in 2015. For over 20 years, this diva, who had long been a mainstay at N’Djamena’s Le Carnivore, one of Chad’s top music hotspots, has been lending her powerful voice, with its perfectly controlled tremolo, to traditional Chadian rhythms, which she flavours with blues, soul, R&B and jazz. This self-taught artist, who, in 2012, was designated Chevalière de l’Ordre du Mérite in her country, released her third album, M’Nôh in 2023.

Title: Wesli

Description: “One foot in Haiti, the other in Canada; one arm reaching towards the past, and the other towards the future: Wesli proves yet again just how much he loves to embrace ‘music’s magnitude’” (Le Devoir, 2022). A leading figure in Haitian music, this singer and multi-instrumentalist is a brilliant guitarist and ingenious arranger who moves between genres, guided by a strong desire to protect and proudly showcase the sounds of rasin and twoubadou music. A born scholar and rhythms aficionado, winner of numerous awards, including a Juno, a Félix, and the Coup de Coeur prize from France’s Académie Charles-Cros, Wesli shines new light on Haiti’s folk heritage and delves deeply into the culture of the Pearl of the Antilles, bringing banda, rara, petro and nago traditions to life both acoustically and electrically, while introducing reggae, funk and electro elements.

Title: DJ Set ICI MUSIQUE – Catherine Pépin thursday

Description: The best of world music

Title: MARZOS & MATEO

Description: How would you feel about ending your day with a big salsa party? That’s what the 15 musicians of Marzos & Mateo will be inviting you to do as they transform the Quartier des Spectacles’ Parterre into an immense dance floor. In Latin America, salsa isn’t just a musical genre or a dance style, it’s a way of life embraced by all generations. While Marzos passionately and energetically delivers a repertoire of classic and original compositions, with plenty of brass and percussion, Mateo, who was chosen Révélation Radio-Canada 2020–2021, will add his expressive voice and own special flair to their performance.

Title: RAÍZ VIVA

Description: “Raw, with elaborate rhythms, Raíz Viva’s performance invited a kind of trance” (Le Devoir, 2025). Winner of the Syli d’argent 2025 for world music, this quintet, whose name means “living roots”, offers a diversity of rhythms, all of which lead back to their original cumbia! Featuring wind instruments and percussion, their music is deeply rooted in Afro-Colombian traditions, the spirit of festivity, the celebration of nature and community sharing, and brings together chalupa, bullerengue, tambora and even Brazilian samba and Quebecois trad.

Title: MYSTER JAY

Description: You’d almost think you were in Kinshasa, in the heart of the night! Jeremie Langi, aka Myster Jay, promises a classy show, a chic ambiance full of joy and music with characteristic La Sape elegance on full display. With his clear, high voice, perfectly suited to what he does best, the singer-songwriter expresses his Congolese heritage coloured by soukous and rumba. Get practising your ndombolo dance steps, you’re going to want to join in!

Title: Djely Tapa

Description: “Without even understanding her lyrics, you can tell she has a strong message, rooted in a desire to be useful and to make a difference” (La Presse, 2024). This is one artist you won’t want to miss! With her powerful, majestic voice, at times reaching a fiery pitch, her impassioned delivery and graceful gestures, Djely Tapa has become the new voice of mandinka music. Daughter of the celebrated Kandia Kouyaté, Djely descends from a long line of illustrious griots and has earned several Juno awards, including for Global Music Album of the Year, 2025. Through her music, she explores a language that looks outwards and towards the future, synthesizing her heritage and afro-futuristic aspirations in a universe where traditional rhythms mingle with Malian blues and electro. At times ethereal, at others dangerously danceable, her songs, which pay homage to women and to Africanness, are loaded with metaphor and imbued with wisdom. She has collaborated with the likes of Tiken Jah Fakoly and Vieux Farka Touré, who also features on her 2024 album Dankoroba (Disques Nuits d’Afrique).

Title: LYDOL

Description: “Lydol is always where you least expect her” (RFI, 2024). Spontaneous, natural and committed, the 2019 Prix Découverte RFI finalist writes what she feels and sets her words to popular Cameroonian rhythms, rap and reggae while always taking esthetic appeal into account. The slam artist, recognized as a Young African Leader by the Mandela Washington Fellowship in 2024, uses music to support her chanted and sometimes outright sung lyrics, seeing this as a way of democratizing her art. Her latest EP, Fragile (2024), is available on all platforms.

Title: TEAM SALSA SEXTET

Description: “Salsa is not a rhythm, it’s a concept” (Willie Colón, pioneer of the “New York Sound” in the 1970s). Salsa emerged organically from immigrant communities in the heart of the Big Apple, with a melting pot of rhythms propelled by the Latin American diaspora, especially Cuban and Puerto Rican, in a bursting effort to forge a distinct identity against a backdrop of social demands. Inspired by the improvisational spirit of jazz and rock, it is a fusion of genres that emphasize the African roots of the traditional rhythms that have shaped Caribbean folk music since the 16th century. Team Salsa Sextet cultivates this passion for life, for being alive and for dancing, through the fervour of percussion and power of brass vibes.

Title: DJ Set ICI MUSIQUE – Catherine Pépin friday

Description: The best of world music

Title: FEMI KUTI & The Positive Force

Description: A “simmering cauldron of energy and trance,” is how Femi Kuti describes New Afrika Shrine, the Lagos club that he helps runs and where he performs several times a week” (RFI, 2024). Femi Kuti & The Positive Force have racked up six Grammy Award nominations, and each time they play in Montreal they draw enthusiastic crowds. For over three decades, with a dozen albums and thousands of concerts to his credit, the artist has proudly continued the legacy of his legendary father Fela Kuti, fervently championing the afrobeat sound Fela launched on the global music stage. Rich, energetic, hypnotic and urban, afrobeat erupts in a powerful explosion of brass and percussion that combines soul, funk and jazz with traditional Yoruba music to convey a message of peace, unity and resistance. Femi Kuti & The Positive Force are back in town with their new album, Journey Through Life, released in the spring of this year.

Title: Reggae Uprising Band & Mello G

Description: Following in Bob Marley’s footsteps, Reggae Uprising Band delivers funky music that never gets old. Composed of seasoned reggae artists, the band has collaborated with musical legends like Marcia Griffiths, Luciano and Tinga Stewart. Covering great Jamaican classics, they playfully incorporate the sounds of soul, R&B, jazz, folk, country or rock, that always gets young and old dancing on the spot, to the great enjoyment of everyone. The band will share the stage with the great reggae veteran Mello G, whose warm voice and peaceful message have graced stages across Canada and around the world during his long career, and who returns to the forefront with tracks from his latest EP Journey in roots (2024).

Title: AFIRKA

Description: At the heart of AfirkA is the shared experience of exhilarating, carefree evenings filled with joy and laughter; inclusive, liberating, exuberant celebrations, pulsating with Algeria’s rhythmic pop sound and punctuated by long, enthusiastic ululations and a cheering crowd. Passionate, urban and energizing, the band features the darbouka, mandola, guitar and violin while its covers of raï, chaoui and kabyle hits are a wonderful reminder of the inherently cosmopolitan nature of Algerian rhythms.

Title: Armand Laklass

Description: Even as a youngster singing in the church choir, he attracted attention for his innate talent and star quality. In high school, he nurtured his musical gift and soon became the star attraction at his school’s concerts. This reputation has stuck with him and still now, when he takes to the stage, his natural charisma is on full display as he embraces his showman status. This captivating bassist from Douala, inspired by Richard Bona, Petit Pays and Étienne Mbappé, delivers a makossa groove that doesn’t hide its similarity to Congolese soukous. An irresistible invitation to dance… Let’s groove!

Title: TYRANE MONDENY

Description: To the modern sounds coming out of Ivory Coast, like coupé-décalé and Ivorian rap, we can add … Tyrane Mondeny! Part of Projet WOP d’Afrique (Women Project Africa), an artistic encounter between five women of different origins who share a common love of singing, Tyty (as she’s called by her fans) is a bold singer-songwriter and a big-hearted fighter who puts her culture first. Steeped in traditional Koyaka music from the northwest of the country, she delivers Mandinka soul with gospel and R&B overtones in such a rich, powerful and comforting voice, that you feel like you’re in a small, cozy cabaret, even when she’s performing on a major stage.

Title: Tamboréal Samba Bloco

Description: Come and dance! There’s sure to be a whiff of the Rio Carnaval floating in the Montreal evening air. Surdo, conga, snare drum, tambourine, repinique, chocalho—percussion instruments reign supreme with this exuberant group that delivers a powerful mix of Samba de Roda, Samba de Cabula, maracatu and other Afro-Brazilian rhythms in rapid tempo. Formed in 2022 by Carlos Henrique Feitosa, this lively collective, with its jazzy, spiced up improvisations and upbeat vocals, certainly holds its own against anything coming out of the famous Brazilian samba schools.

Title: DJ Set ICI MUSIQUE – Julio Mendy saturday

Description: The best of world music

Title: BAZ KONPA

Description: An exquisite Saturday evening under the stars, bathed in the clammy summer heat—it’s all part of the experience! Keyboard, guitar, bass, conga, tanbou, drums… the perfect ingredients for a sensuous, cheek-to-cheek dance party. Since the ’50s, always in step with the times and never losing any of its appeal, konpa has been encapsulating Haitian Romanticism in styled rhythms where synthesizers dictate the tempo while maintaining the méringue and twoubadou groove. Formed by brothers Duckens and Jean Wesly Fils, Baz Konpa delivers a solid performance to the Pearl of the Antilles’ dreamy dance rhythms, the kind that make your head spin in the best of ways!

Title: Hendry Massamba & Floric Kim

Description: The best of world music

Title: Orchestre Chaabi de Montréal

Description: “Here, Algiers resonates. Here, Algiers lives. The notes, like heartbreaking complaints, evoke nostalgic beauty” (La Converse, 2023). Chaâbi is kasbah jazz; unlike art music, it is not written down but rather passed down orally from one chaâbi master to another. It conveys friendship, love and everyday concerns. Algerian mandole, banjo, violine, guitar, mandolin, oud, tar, piano, darbouka… Since 2017, the twenty or so musicians and choir members of the Orchestre Chaâbi de Montréal (OCM) have been performing in harmony in order to share Algeria’s Arab and Kabyle folk heritage. From El Hachemi Guerouabi to Amar Ezzahi, Dahmane El Harrachi, Lounis Aït Menguellet, or Lounès Matoub, the OCM’s repertoire reveals the passion of this beautiful tradition that brings together Maghrebian poetry and Andalusi-Arabic music.

Title: BIC Tizon Dife

Description: BIC stands for “brain, intelligence, creativity.” A master wordsmith, BIC Tizon Dife lays his hip hop phrasing over beats straight out of Haiti. For over 25 years, this guitarist, singer-songwriter and former Unicef Goodwill Ambassador has been an important figure in his country’s cultural scene. Sometimes he adopts a light-hearted tone, other times he’s more serious, but he is always sincere as he speaks of everyday life, love and social challenges.

Title: MANAMBA KANTÉ

Description: “Daughter of one of West Africa’s most celebrated griots and wife of Guinea’s new star of soul, Manamba Kanté is above all, an outstanding singer and self-made woman” (Jeune Afrique, 2018). She is indeed the daughter of Mory Kanté, and married to Soul Bang’s. But that’s not why she’s such a success. In fact, she’s a very bright rising star in the Mandinka music world. Her lifelong dream to be a singer led her to develop her voice, which can have a hushed quality or soar to great heights. One of the ten finalists of Prix Découvertes RFI 2020, this Malinké griot moves through West African traditions with ease. She has just released her second album, Mousso.

Title: LAS KARAMBA

Description: Lively and intoxicating, the music of this group of independent, energetic and creative women captures the spirit of multicultural Barcelona, the city where they first joined forces. Bolero, son, salsa, rumba, cha-cha-cha… Upbeat and politically engaged, these six musicians of different origins whip up a feast of infectious urban rhythms with a Cuban twist. Models of strength and freedom for women around the world, and great admirers of Celia Cruz, they pay tribute to this Queen of Salsa on their latest album Te lo digo cantando (2024).

Title: DJ SETS – KIZABA

Description: The best of world music

Title: MEIWAY ET LE ZO GANG f

Description: What can we say? His reputation precedes him! All those who took in his shows during Festival International Nuits d’Afrique in 2016 and 2023, know exactly what we mean. No words could possibly do justice to the experience of seeing Meiway live on stage and no superlative is strong enough to describe his personality, which is simply beyond compare! Can we call him a legend? There’s no doubt about it. For over 30 years, this irreverent and funny showman has been performing all over the world with his unique and timeless “Zoblazo,” a style he invented and which he adapts to all kinds of styles and trends. Get out your white handkerchiefs! It’s an essential accessory for dancing to the spirited choreographies inspired by this percussive melting pot of southern Ivorian folk and modern influences.