Guitarist and singer Amadou Bagayoko of the star Malian music duo Amadou & Mariam has died aged 70 following an illness, his family told AFP on Friday, paying tribute to the Grammy-nominated blind musician. With his wife Mariam Doumbia, Amadou formed half of a group whose blend of traditional rock guitars and Western blues saw them sell millions of albums and conquer dance floors across the world.

Among other achievements the pair, who met at the institute for the young blind in the Malian capital Bamako, composed the official song for the 2006 football World Cup in Germany and played at the closing ceremony concert for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. “He had been ill for a while,” Amadou’s son in law Youssouf Fadiga told AFP. Their France-based manager Yannick Tardy, who had just spoken to Mariam by phone, told AFP that Amadou was taken to a clinic after feeling fatigue, before dying in the afternoon. Confirming the musician’s death to AFP, Malian culture minister Mamou Daffe said he felt “dismay” at the loss.

Amadou Bagayoko (right) and Mariam Doumbia, of Malian duo Amadou and Mariam, speak after receiving the award for Reggae/Ragga/World album of the year for their album ‘Dimanche a Bamako’, during the 20th Victoires de la Musique ceremony, at the Zenith venue in Paris, on March 5, 2005.

Gorillaz, Pink Floyd, Obama

After meeting in 1976, when Amadou was 21 and Mariam 18, the pair discovered they had similar tastes in music. They began touring together from the 1980s, mixing traditional west African instruments like the kora and balafon with the Pink Floyd and James Brown records from their youth. At the start they sang songs to raise awareness of the problems facing their peers living with blindness and disabilities.

A few decades later their 2004 album “Dimanche a Bamako” (Sunday in Bamako) brought them worldwide success backed up by the title track. The album’s producer, Franco-Spanish star Manu Chao, paid tribute to Amadou after his death in a post on Instagram, saying: “We will always be together... With you, wherever you go,” with a photo of him and the duo.

An honorary plaque for the renowned album Dimanche a Bamako is seen on the wall of the home of Malian music stars Amadou & Mariam in Bamako on April 5, 2025.

Dubbed “the blind couple from Mali”, Amadou and Mariam became one of Africa’s best-selling and beloved pairs, playing alongside the likes of Damon Albarn of Blur and Gorillaz and Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour -- a childhood idol.

The duo went on to play at festivals including Glastonbury in England, share bills with Coldplay, U2 and Stevie Wonder, and play for Barack Obama at the concert marking the US president’s Nobel Peace Prize award. “There were many musicians, many artists there. And Barack Obama came to meet us,” Amadou told AFP in a 2024 interview.

“We talked a bit. Barack Obama told us that he liked our music. Malian music too. We were very, very happy,” Mariam added. Besides a Grammy nomination in 2010, Amadou & Mariam also won prizes at the BBC radio awards and France’s Victoires de la Musique. Amadou Bagayoko is survived by three children.--AFP