Rokia Traore's Quotes

A melody without the right rhythm hardly exists.

I loved music - listening and playing - but of course I could not imagine I would be a professional musician. It really happened step by step.

Not what you would call a musical family, but my father used to play saxophone, and I discovered many genres of music when I was a child.

We need self-confidence in our ability to build Africa. I trust in Mali and I trust in music.

Going back and forth between Western Arabic and African countries clearly created the various musical backgrounds I could have and obviously influenced my professional attitude, my way of approaching both music composition and singing, particularly phrasing.