Her casual confidence is domineering as she commands the stage. “On est en famille,” she says. In English, “We are amongst family”. Dobet Gnahoré, a queen on her stage, belts her powerful voice to the furthermost corners of Geneva’s Theatre Pitoeff. Hitting high notes with an invigorating rasp, touching each member of the audience who remained on their feet dancing and gyrating and singing in celebration for a good part of her performance. Some people are unable to control their excitement, two fans jump on stage and dance with the singer. She welcomes them with smiles and chants of endearment, a queen, who happily shares her thrown.
Gnarhoré’s set is strong, stimulating, touching. At times her and her extremely talented band perform songs that make us dance. Other times they bring you near tears, even though there were many words I could not understand. The Ivorian sings in over nine languages. So you can imagine her performance as a multicultural stew of rhythm and lyrics. She sings of the unconditional love one has for their mother in ‘Maman’, in ‘Zina’ she sings of domestic abuse, something that is all too common. She sings songs of friendship, of love, of the need for political change on the African continent. When she sings I believe her, she wants change, she loves she cares. She halts her performance to console a coughing child in the audience “Koso baby, koso,” she says.
Gnahoré, the 2010 Grammy award winner, had a lovely air about her. She was as humble as she was confident, everything about her and her music is so deep and touching and intimate. She signs my newly bought album, “Na Dré” (please have a listen, it’s moving) and returns it to me “ça va ma belle.”