World Music Matters

Emmanuel π Djob started out singing gospel in his native Cameroon and is building a successful blues-soul career in France. He heads up the six-piece AfroSoul Gang, but it’s performing alone with guitar that his gravel-rough baritone voice, raw emotion and soul really shines through. We caught him performing live on RFI's Musiques du Monde. Emmanuel π Djob started out with Bayembi’s International, a pan African gospel formation popular in Cameroon in the 1990s.After settling in France, he helped to revive and renew the gospel tradition, performing with the Black & White Gospel Singers and Gospelize it!He released his debut album, Seven Minutes, in 2008, drawing on the blues, pop and rock to explore the theme of the death penalty.He went on to record a series of albums called Terrassa’s Conversessions in 2010.In 2013 he created a storm on the TV music talent show The Voice singing Ray Charles’ Georgia on My Mind.“Ray Charles, Bob Marley, Fela Kuti, Hugh Masekela, they were my musical foundations,” he says.