Djely Tapa

About

The artist

Djely Tapa is a Malian-Canadian singer, songwriter, and griot based in Montreal. Born Sountougoumba Diarra into a family of griots from western Mali, she grew up with singing, dance, and oral storytelling before moving to Montreal for university studies. Her solo work carries Manding instruments, vocal traditions, and historical memory into arrangements shaped by desert blues, jazz, electronic music, and Afrofuturism. The 2019 album Barokan introduced a future-facing statement about African womanhood, ancestry, freedom, and courage and won the 2020 JUNO Award for World Music Album of the Year. Dankoroba, produced in Montreal with instruments recorded in Mali and guests including Vieux Farka Touré, won Global Music Album of the Year at the 2025 JUNO Awards. Her current catalog also includes Le sais-tu?, Wili, collaborative releases from 2025 and 2026, and work connected to the 2026 album Connection. Djely Tapa's performances and writing emphasize empowerment, unity, cultural continuity, and a feminist, pan-African perspective. Her official bilingual website documents an active 2026 calendar across Quebec and Canada as well as a public professional booking route. Current geography is independently supported by the Canada Black Music Archives, which identifies her as Montreal-based, and by her official site, which documents Montreal production, Montreal recognition, and ongoing Quebec activity. Spotify, Apple Music, MusicBrainz, and the official website resolve to the same identity and catalog. Exact English and French payloads, including contact instructions, were reviewed before approval, only public professional contact routing is exposed, Spotify media remains live and provider-attributed, and the profile is sourced and unclaimed.