Sona Jobarteh

SONA JOBARTEH - Africa's first female griot kora virtuoso

Sona Jobarteh's music stands on the powerful shoulders of the West African griot tradition. She is a living archive of the Gambian people. With one ear tuned to her family's historical call and the other to the vital legacy still to be passed on, her heart firmly in both places, she is today laying the ground for the next generation. Her singing and kora playing as the frontwoman of her band flow directly from that tradition. The scale of her reach speaks for itself: over 10 million views on YouTube and a substantial following across other digital platforms - all while singing in her mother tongues and forging her own path in the music industry.

Sona's commitment to carrying important humanitarian messages through her songs and performances makes her far more than a musician. She is an active advocate for social change and leads by example. She single-handedly founded the Gambia Academy, a pioneering institution pushing for educational reform across the African continent.

Sona Jobarteh guards her musical past while working, with genuinely innovative ideas, toward a more humane future.