Youssou N’Dour is, quite simply, one of the best singers in the world. Yet the West African star, a TIME 100 icon who first entered American ears via Peter Gabriel’s 1986 “In Your Eyes”, has always remained close to his roots, with Senegalese traditions and griot storytelling as enduring hallmarks of his artistic persona. Throughout his decades-long career, Youssou’s roots in traditional Senegalese music and griot storytelling have remained the hallmark of his artistic personality.

A bold innovator and staunch protector of the unique “Dakar overgroove”, N’Dour and his high-energy Super Étoile succeed in creating a sound that is at once characteristically Senegalese and foreign, an infectious and exciting synthesis of musical languages. Rolling Stone calls N’Dour’s impressive tenor “a voice so extraordinary that the history of Africa seems locked inside it”, and Super Étoile has been praised in The Village Voice as “the best band in the world”.