(Friday 3 September 2010 Issue)
Gambia's reigning mbalax king, Mam Tamsir Njie, recently returned home after a successful musical tour of the United Kingdom to promote his album.
The Gambian mbalax star came back with an eight-track album, which according to music observers is a masterpiece. With its power and high production quality, the album entitled "Hero" contains mbalax, reggae, as well as Afro-manding songs and is available on sale at Kerewan Sounds as the main distributor.
Briefing Entertainment last Tuesday at his office in Banjul, Mam Tamsir Njie said his recent tour of the UK was a total success, noting that he was able to meet with international artists to discuss ways and means of building links with them. He told Entertainment that the new album touches on building the international relationship between The Gambia and Senegal, promoting our culture and traditional values, as well as to empower Gambian women.
"This time, I played not only mbalax but reggae and afro-manding songs which talks about tourism in The Gambia". Mam Tamsir Njie added that preparations are under way to launch his album. He went on to reveal that, right now, he is working on the logistics, adding that his target is to bring both local and international artists to attend the launching. With the support of the media and the people, we will be able to promote our music rather than promoting foreign music. He lamented that most of the time foreign music is played on Gambian radio stations which, he said, will not help in promoting our own music. Mam Tamsir Njie made waves in the music scene by producing almost twenty albums, including his new album to be launched soon. He called on people to support him in one way or the other in terms of organising a mega launching of his album.
Dilating on the Gambia's music scene, Mam Tamsir said the Gambia's music scene should be looked at, adding that it needs to be promoted by Gambians themselves. He called on Gambians to support the music in this country. Mam Tamsir noted that if the copyright law is put in place, they will definitely prefer to play more of Gambian music than foreign music. I was in UK to perform and also to promote my album. He explained that his main target is to promote the album countrywide.
