Alpha Blondy: biography of the Ivorian Reggae Icon

African singer Alpha Blondy was one of the world’s top reggae artists during the 1980s and ‘90s. He was born Seydou Kone in 1953 in Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), where he grew up with his grandmother Cherie Coco in the Jula (or Dioula) tribe. He got expelled from school for forming a band and not attending classes. It is said that, at this point, Cherie Coco nicknamed him “Blondy”, which was her unique pronunciation of the word “bondee” (a Jula-French pun for the word “bandit”). In 1973, his parents sent him to study English in Monrovia, Liberia. Seydou Kone demonstrated enough talent as a student to win admission to Hunter College and Columbia University in the United States, where moved to pursue a career in teaching.

Already a fan of reggae, once in New York Seydou met a Rastafari for the first time and attended concerts of Jamaican artists like Burning Spear. This brought him closer to music and singing. According to some accounts, he recorded some tracks that were never released, and he had to return to the Ivory Coast due to some altercations with the law. Allegedly, his hardship continued for some time in Abidjan, but Seydou Kone would continue writing his own original songs and eventually started using the name of Alpha Blondy (“first bandit”). His performance on an Ivory Coast talent-search television program was spotted by a producer, and his career as a musician finally started.

Alpha Blondy’s first album, Jah Glory, became an African million-seller in 1982. The most popular song, “Brigadier Sabari,” was an account of Blondy’s run-in with an Abidjan police street raid he had witnessed: it was the first time a West African artist had dared to mention police brutality in public.

Alpha Blondy’s next albums were “Cocody Rock” with his band called Solar System, “Jerusalem” with The Wailers backing him up, and Revolution. By 1987, Blondy had established himself as an international artist. Calling himself an African Rasta, his songs promoted morality, love, peace, and social consciousness. He was also a strong supporter of African unity, singing to Muslim audiences in Hebrew and singing in Arabic to Israelis. Alpha Blondy added the distinctive element of African percussion and African-style backup vocals to his music, which was firmly rooted musically in the reggae tradition.

In 1992, the album “Masada”, was released in more than 50 countries around the world, followed by other successes like “Yitzhak Rabin”, “Paris Percy”, “Vision” and “Positive Energy”. Alpha Blondy received a Grammy Award nomination in the category of Best Reggae Album for “Mercy”, and used the accompanying fame to call for peace in Ivory Coast following the rebellion of 2002. His latest album, “Human Race”, was released in 2018. Alpha Blondy continues performing even nowadays in his sixties.

Sources:
Sandra Brennan on allmusic.com
Angel Romero on worldmusiccentral.org
encyclopedia.com
All photos from Alpha Blondy’s official account on Facebook