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Artist
Sia Tolno
12+ albums
afrobeatguineaworldfemale vocalistsafrican
about
Sia Tolno was born 1975 in Guéckédou, Guinea, but grew up in Freetown, Sierra Leone. She was born as a KIssi, a tribal group divided over the borders of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. Her father tought her French and pidgin-English, She was treated harsly as a child, but her writing and poetry helped her to carry on. Then, just as she was wondering whether to study IT or drama, she found herself caught up in the war. She was twenty when the forces commanded by Liberia’s Charles Taylor plunged the region into bloody conflict. In desperation, she fled to Guinea, although she barely knew her family there and did not speak French. So Sia Tolno decided to become an artist. She settled in Conakry and sang in its bars and night clubs. She describes this period of cigarettes, liquor and empty pockets in Malaya, a very soul number from her second album, My Life. n 2008, she represented her country in the first series of Africa Star (the Pan-African version of Making a Music Star), held in Gabon. Among the judges were the great musician and composer Pierre Akendengue and his new producer, José da Silva, who worked with Cesaria Evora. Akendengue was impressed: the young woman had a remarkable voice. When Sia Tolno released her first international album, Eh Sanga, in 2009 on the Lusafrica label, Guinea was again in the grip of civil unrest. In 2011, she released her second album, My Life, which was recorded at the studio's of Mory Kante in Conakry. Traditional instruments and rhythm
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