Zanzibar

Bi Kidude was one of Zanzibar’s most prominent singers of unyago, the music and dance style that accompanies weddings and girls’ coming of age rituals. Most importantly, though, she is remembered as the “Queen of Taarab” along the trailblazing Siti binti Saad, who inspired Bi Kidude throughout her life. Despite being the island’s most celebrated musicians, she recorded astonishingly little over her century-long life, and 1998’s “Zanzibar” was her first solo album. Her deep, powerful voice stands in stark contrast with the delicate Taarab instrumentation, which combines percussion, violins, flutes, the oud, and the zither-like kanun, conveying a sense of deep emotion and connection to Zainzibar’s rich past. .