From music to politics

With West African rhythms and a bluesey voice, Youssou N'Dour has influenced artists from Paul Simon to Peter Gabriel. He has won a Grammy, served as a goodwill ambassador for the UN and launched a newspaper, a television network and a radio station.

Now the 52-year-old singer wants to change his country. "For 50 years the people have seen Senegal run by what I would call traditional politicians and they have had enough," he said of a country where formal jobs are scarce and most of the population of 12 million live on a few dollars a day.

"They want something new and I am the model", N'Dour added. He already has a grassroots citizens' movement which has been a conduit for criticism of incumbent President Abdoulaye Wade, whom he is hoping to unseat. 85-year-old Wade is a skilled political operator with his hands firmly on the machinery of power. However, when he wanted to lower the bar for a first round presidential election victory, protestors clashed with rioters and 100 people were injured. Wade was forced to back down.

Widely respected

Speaking on his own television channel TFM, N'Dour said he wanted to stop politicians believing they could govern with impunity once in office. He may have been referring to the events of summer 2009 when Senegal was in the throes of prolonged power cuts and flooding. Wade came in for criticism for failing to return home from his villa in France.

N'Dour is widely respected in Senegal for not emigrating, despite winning international acclaim and wealth, thanks to hits such as the 1994 duet "7 Seconds" with Neneh Cherry. He has achieved huge international success with his mixture of Senegal's popular Mbalax music style with samba, hip-hop, jazz and soul.

Competent advisors

Whatever N'Dour may think of his chances of winning the election, he is shrewd enough to display modesty. "I'm not highly educated," he told the media earlier this week, adding that his knowledge has come from the world rather than from books.

He will face more than a dozen rivals in the February 26th poll, Wade and possibly two ex-prime ministers included. Senegalese journalist Bab Diop told the news agency AFP N'Dour could win the election "if he surrounds himself with competent advisors." He described the upcoming poll as "the most open election" since the country achieved independence from France in 1960.

Paul Melly of the London-based Chatham House Africa Program says N'Dour has the capacity to reach sections of the population, particularly among urban youth, that some other politicians might not be able to reach. "But his ability to translate that into an effective political campaign is of course untested," he added.

The vote will be watched throughout Africa after a string of marred elections from the deadly post-poll dispute that blew up in Ivory Coast to the Democratic Republic of Congo's flawed attempt at democracy last year. The singer who has performed with Sting, Bruce Springsteen and Lou Reed will again find himself in the spotlight.

Author: Mark Caldwell (rtr/afp/dpa)
Editor: Susan Houlton/Michael Knigge