Valérie Ékoumè (CAMEROON)

TD MAINSTAGE BANDSHELL
THURSDAY 8:30PM-9:30PM

LONDON BREWERIES STAGE
SATURDAY 6:00pm-6:45pm

Valérie Ékoumè is a Paris-born Cameroonian singer who can knock out a pop ballad with nothing but her own piano as accompaniment just as easily as she can slide into a Makossa-influenced vamp and bring an audience to its feet. Born to a musician family, Valérie grew up listening to everything from Congolese rumba to Western pop music and calls Miriam Makeba and Whitney Houston her ‘virtual vocal coaches.’ Her life took a different turn when, in 2004, she started to actively work with the great Cameroonian musician and songwriter Manu Dibango and his Soul Makossa Gang.

Valérie’s recordings find her digging deeper into her cultural roots: “I wanted to express the colour, the joy, (of) life in Cameroon.” But underlying the songs is a lament that “There's no trace of all the great African kingdoms and stories, the things that Black people brought to humanity.” Despite her frustration, Ékoumè is simply radiant in performance: “I think we’re all related in a way but we don’t find the way. On stage I want to try and connect with people, to [have] a great time and to share what is for me the most important thing… which is love.”

Valérie has released three albums of highly danceable fusion: the latest, Moné, is “an exhilarating record whose lively musicality need not detract from its purpose” (RFI Musique, 2022) – namely, to embrace her identity and stand against inequalities!