. Henri Dikongué has been living in France for 12 years now. He first came to Besancon to study law, but quickly abandoned it to pursue music alone. He joined the pan-African music and theater company Masques & Tam-Tam where he met actor Martin Yog, singer Alfred M'Bongo and percussionist Manuel Wandji. Then he joined Banthu Maranatha, a South African vocal group based in Besancon for which he composed several songs.Paris 1989: classical guitar school and an interrupted recording project; he had to wait three years before Manuel Wandji invited him to produce his first album, which was finally released in 1995, by Buda Records. This album, entitled Wa, was enthusiastically acclaimed by critics, who see in him, with Lokua Kanza or Sally Nyolo, the arrival of a new generation of African musicians ready topick up the baton on a world-music scene which was showing signs of flagging.
For two years, performing in festivals or supporting major acts such as Cesaria Evora, Carmel, or Maxime Leforestier, Dikongué has been winning over audiences who had actually
come to hear someone else, and he is gradually gathering a bunch of faithful supporters - one could even say fans - who come to every concert, delighted to have found a quality of emotion and authenticity that are all too often missing from today's musical scene.
Dikongué returns to the studio in 1997 with Manuel Wandji, and has successfully avoided the pitfalls that are so often fatal in a second album. C 'est la Vie, with its wealth of melody (11 songs with 11 melodies) and a simplicity of treatment of voices and guitars, displays continuity with his first album while at the same time going forward to open up new worlds of music.
Henri Dikongué is a rebel with a sensitive soul; his way of expressing himself is very personal, the fruit of passions, sorrow, love and revolt.. Henri sings with his heart, and his guitar gives rhythm to his melodies and emotionsBorn in Cameroon into a family of musicians, Henri Dikongué grew up in the capital city, Yaounde, where he learned the acoustic guitar from his uncle. His grandmother brought him to the protestant choir where he first sang. Henri sings in Douala (his parents' native city), and his most important musical influence was makossa
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