Bio
"In each of my projects, the same concerns drive me: how Africa can reconnect with its identity, emancipate itself from its colonial history, inspire its youth and invent its future.”
Born in Cameroon in 1974, Blick Bassy grew up between Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon, and Mintaba, his native village where singing, dancing and music are customary. He draws his multiple inspirations from his childhood memories, travelling between music, dance, performing arts and cinema, Blick Bassy brings these disciplines into dialogue with brio.
After spending ten years with the group Macase, which he created, he embarked on a solo career and produced four successful albums, making him one of the most inventive multidisciplinary artists of his generation.
Winner of the Grand Prix Sacem Musique du Monde, his latest album 1958 evokes the year in which the independence leader Ruben Um Nyobe was assassinated by the French army. Blick Bassy takes up this heritage and questions the conflicts of yesterday and today.
His futuristic Afro music makes him an avant-garde artist mixing traditional and electro modern sounds.
In 2016, he wrote his first novel, Le Moabi Cinéma, published by Gallimard. The story takes place in Cameroon where a group of five young graduates dream of the West, a true chronicle of a sacrificed and drifting African youth. This book is also a warning about the mirages of the West at a time when thousands of young Africans choose to leave the continent at the risk of their lives. A book awarded the Grand Prix which celebrates the continent's French-speaking authors.
In 2021, the Quai Branly Museum offers him carte blanche. Blick Bassy brings the story of his country Cameroon and the African continent to the eyes of the world. He then presented a series of artistic works such as concerts, sound experiments, musical conferences, a first short film, and dance. Blick Bassy is part of this new generation determined to contribute to the change of the African continent at any cost.