Papa Wemba, one of Africa’s greatest music stars, died on Sunday after collapsing on stage during a festival in Ivory Coast.
The Congolese world music legend, renowned as the “king of Congolese rumba” for the fusion of Cuban and electronic rock that he pioneered in the 1970s, was 66.
He died after falling ill during a set at the Urban Musical Festival Anoumabo (FEMUA) in Abidjan, the first major cultural event in the country since an extremist attack on a beach resort last month.
Photo: AFP
Video footage broadcast live on television showed the dramatic moment that Papa Wemba 3 wearing a bold black and white patterned tunic and oversized bowler hat — slumped to the floor behind a group of dancers, before performers rushed to his aid.
FEMUA organizers expressed “deep sorrow” at the death of a man who has been at the forefront of African music for more than four decades.
“Papa Wemba wanted to die on stage, that’s what he told me two weeks ago when I spoke to him on the phone,” festival promoter and singer Salif Traore, known as A’Salfo, said.
A’Salfo, lead singer with the Ivorian group Magic System, said he understood Papa Wemba died on the way to hospital and that a journalist who interviewed him earlier in the day had noticed that he appeared unwell.
The journalist “told me that Papa Wemba was showing signs of fatigue. He was drinking water between every sentence,” he said.
The festival was held just over a month after the attack on the beach resort of Grand-Bassam on March 13 that left 19 people dead.
Papa Wemba was born Jules Shungu Wembadio Pene Kikumba in June 1949 in what was then the Belgian Congo, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo).
He won international acclaim when the fashion for African and world music took hold in Europe and the US in the 1980s, and recorded with British rock star Peter Gabriel.
“He was an icon, an artist of talent... it’s a great loss for music,” DR Congo Culture Minister Banza Mukalay said.
He added that the singer’s body would be brought back to his homeland.
Papa Wemba had begun his singing career in religious choirs in which he developed his trademark high range voice, making his debut in the capital Kinshasa at the end of the 1960s.
He inherited his love of song from his mother, who was a professional “wailing woman” at funerals.
He was strongly influenced by American and British pop culture and initially took the stage name Jules Presley.
A father of six, Papa Wemba was also known as the driving spirit behind a cult movement known as Sapeurs whose members spend huge amounts of money on designer clothes.
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