Youssou N’Dour

Youssou N’Dour is, simply, one of the world’s greatest singers. Yet the West African star—a TIME 100 icon who first entered Americans’ ears through Peter Gabriel’s 1986 “In Your Eyes”—has always stayed close to his roots, with Senegalese traditions and griot storytelling as enduring hallmarks of his artistic personality. Throughout his decades-long career, Youssou’s roots in Senegalese traditional music and griot storytelling have remained the hallmark of his artistic personality.

A daring innovator and staunch protector of the unique “Dakar overgroove,” N’Dour and his high-energy Super Étoile manage to fashion a sound that is both characteristically Senegalese and outward-looking, a contagiously exciting synthesis of musical languages. Rolling Stone calls N’Dour’s stunning tenor “a voice so extraordinary that the history of Africa seems locked inside it,” and Super Étoile has been lauded in The Village Voice as “the greatest band in the world.”