Ismaël Lô, born in Dogondoutchi, Niger on August 30, 1956, to a Senegalese father from the Wolof ethnic group and a Nigerien mother, was raised from infancy in the coastal Senegalese town of Rufisque. Often hailed as "the Bob Dylan of Africa" for his evocative acoustic melodies and harmonica work, Lô studied at the School of Art in Dakar during the 1970s before joining the legendary band Super Diamono. He launched a prolific solo career in 1984, releasing five albums in four years before dropping his seventh album, Ismaël Lô (1990), on the Barclay label, which featured his massive international breakout hit "Tajabone." A talented actor and composer, Lô scored and appeared in Ousmane Sembène's Camp de Thiaroye (1988), starred in Moussa Sene Absa's Tableau Ferraille (1996), and saw his music reach global cinema audiences through Pedro Almodóvar's All About My Mother and the 2007 Rwandan genocide drama Shake Hands with the Devil. Honored with albums like Sénégal (2006) as a tribute to his homeland and appointed a Knight of the French Legion of Honor in 2002, Lô remains one of West Africa's most revered cultural icons.