Listen to Baaba Maal’s New Single “Yerimayo Celebration”

Senegalese icon Baaba Maal has announced a new album, Being, coming next year on March 31st.

This will be Baaba Maal’s first project in almost seven years and will serve as an extension of his undeniable legacy over the past four decades. The Senegalese musician partnered with producer and multi-instrumentalist Johan Karlberg for the body of work and spent time piecing it together across Brooklyn, London and Senegal.

While discussing the album and the impact of his birthplace on his sonic direction, Maal stated that home played a big part in his creative process.

“However far I travel, whatever direction, I will always return home,” said Baaba. “It is the nomadic nature. To wander, but to return home, eventually. Home is where you start from, where you begin to learn what really matters, and home is where you finish. Podor is the perfect place for me when I need some time to think, to see my music with a fresh eye, to surprise it, snare it, catch it unawares as if coming across it for the first time.”

The lead single on the album, “Yerimayo Celebration,” is an introduction to a collection of songs that sees Baaba Maal calling for people to both honor tradition and deal with new technology, as they face up to an ever-evolving world. The track features Cheikh Ndoye on bass and Momadou Sarr on percussion—and is a percussion-loaded, feel-good tune.

While discussing his upcoming seven-track project, Maal said that each song will have its very own unique DNA. “Each song of this album has its own personality. A song is like a person. It has a life, name, a character, and it has a position in life,” says Maal. “I think that’s what makes this album so powerful – it is totally about now and where I am now, the dreams I have of the past and the future.”

On May 30th, 2023 Baaba and his band will perform at the Barbican in London for the first time in 20 years and fans who pre-order the album from Bandcamp can access the artist pre-sale for tickets.

Watch the visualizer for “Yerimayo Celebration,” below.