Arouna and Zaza Diarra are a married couple originally from Burkina Faso, West Africa. Both of them sing folk songs and world music in their native language of Bambara as well as English, French and Mossi. Their new song, “Dounouya,” comes from their upcoming album of the same name, which translates to “The World.” The track will fill listeners with joy, peace and hope.

Arouna and Zaza composed “Dounouya” after seeing the various struggles their loved ones and people across the world were going through. It celebrates universal brotherhood and not taking people for granted because while situations may be hard, loved ones are always around and by your side. Themes of love and solidarity are the throughline across the track which is not sung in English but the message still translates through their beautiful vocals and instrumentation.

“We want to communicate a sense of peace and hope through the song. Even though the song is not sung in English, we still want those feelings of joy, hope, community and love to be translated through it.” said Zaza.

Arouna Diarra plays the instruments and sings in this duo. He also builds his instruments himself. After buying instruments from others for years, he soon realized in order to get the specific aspects he wanted in them, he would just have to build them himself. He later turned this into a business and sells his handmade instruments online at burkinastrings.com.

“It was also difficult to ship instruments to America from Africa. It was also a challenge to find the right materials I needed here in America at first because I was getting wood from hardware stores and things like that. But I figured it out and made it work.” said Arouna.

Arouna is a twelfth generation musician and comes from a family of griots, who have a rich storied history of combining storytelling and music in West Africa.

“I actually didn’t have a teacher for many of the instruments I play like the Kamale Ngoni. I learned from playing them, listening to others around me and then naturally moving on to the next instrument…The music of the griots in my family is generational.” said Arouna.

Zaza Diarra sings in this duo and also plays the Shekere. She was drawn to Arouna’s balafon playing in the most natural way: she heard it from a distance. Upon hearing him perform on stage at an event she almost didn’t even attend, her reaction was authentic and natural.

“Arouna was one of the main performers at an event we have here and he was performing his last song. I was in my car and heard his balafon playing and was completely shocked by it. I had been living in America for 30 years at this point and had never heard that song played in a live setting or any music from Burkina Faso. I was really excited so I just jumped on stage and started dancing. The song’s melody was also one of my Mom’s favorites and she has passed away, so it was truly an emotion filled moment. Arouna introduced himself to me and was the first person I had met from Burkina Faso since living in America. That was our automatic  connection." said Zaza.

The instinctively natural rhythm of music flows through Zaza as much as it does Arouna. Arouna noticed that when Zaza spoke, she had a natural melodic cadence which drew him to wanting her to sing as he played.

“We played our first show together right before COVID started. Since then we have played all kinds of shows together.” said Arouna.

Zaza founded a childcare center called Immanuel Care for Children and has had a natural connection with children all her life. But, even this part of her life still has music running through it.  Babies and children have naturally responded with attentiveness and peace when Arouna played his instruments at the center or even when Zaza speaks due to the aforementioned naturally melodic tone to her voice.

Arouna and Zaza Diarra’s album Dounouya consists of seven songs that are “a piece of life, a lesson in wisdom, an emotion that resonates beyond borders.” Arouna has the gift of fingers with his instrument playing while Zaza has the gift of voice with her singing. Music has weaved itself across their lives and it all carries the same message of love, community and joy that they spread through everything that they do.

You can watch the music video for “Dounouya” here.

You can see more of the emotion centered music of Arouna and Zaza Diarra by keeping up with them on these platforms.

Website
YouTube
Facebook
Instagram

The Starlight PR Team thanks Arouna and Zaza Diarra for taking the time to speak with us.