Donné Roberts

2 times Juno Award winner and 4 times Juno Award nominated.

Singer-songwriter/guitarist Donné Roberts was born in Madagascar. Now based in Toronto, Canada. He’s earned a matchless reputation for his compositions, strong catchy melodic lines that makes his audience sing along with him during live performances, strong message on the lyrics, also the excitement and the high energy and professionalism of his live shows.
Donné Roberts is a passionate performer. When he hits the stage, he carries with him an energy that immediately exhilarates the crowd even if they've never heard his music before. Donné performs mainly in Malagasy mother tongue from his birthplace of Madagascar. Yet this never proves to be a barrier to the audience, providing living proof that music truly does transcend languages.
Donné came to wider recognition in Canada after he released his albums “Rhythm Was Born”, “Internation” and the most recent release “OYA” was released in October 2021. Also got recognitions for his contribution as one of the members of the African Guitar Summit project, which won a JUNO Award in 2005 and was nominated for another one in 2007 and also as a former original member of Okavango the African Orchestra that won a JUNO Award while he was a member in 2017. Also known as one of the African musicians in Toronto who’s been invited to collaborate and co-write songs with various Canadian musicians such as the Sultans Of Strings, Amanda Martinez and more.

Donné was raised and educated in Moscow, Russia, speaks and sings in Malagasy, French, and English. In Moscow, he was the first black VJ on MTV Russia.
From touring as a backup singer for Ace of Base (Swedish pop group) to a stint as the first black VJ on MTV Russia, Donné has led a prolific and varied artistic life since he left his home country of Madagascar as a boy.
Touring Canada, he introduces his music to new fans that might be unfamiliar with the kinds of rhythms his music conveys and his fusion of seemingly dissimilar sounds.

His success led to CBC Radio asking him to compose the theme song for their popular morning show Fresh Air, which still runs today. Also, he was invited and co-wrote a theme song with Yukiko Tsutsui (Japanese singer songwriter) for ABS TV & Radio station Japan after his successful tour with Yukiko Tsutsui in Japan in 2018.

Currently his is working on promoting and organizing the CD release concert for the new Album “OYA!!!” in March 2022 and his live performance at the Winterfolk Festival in Toronto.