Takeifa
Takeifa Band

Songs

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Line up

  • Cheikh Keita (E Guitar)
  • Fallou Keita (Rap / Tabala)
  • Ibrahima Keita (Drums / Backing Vocal)
  • Jac Keita (Main Vocal / acoutic guitar)
  • Maah Keita (Bass / Backing Vocal)

Links

TAKEIFA - Biography:

If you walk through the streets of Dakar, the Senegalese capital, and ask one of the locals where the Keita siblings live, you will soon get an answer, because the band TAKEIFA around its founder and lead vocalist Jac Keita have long been a musical institution In Senegal, their home country.

But let us go one step back – to the year 1992:

In the town of Kaolack in Senegal the 11-year-old Jac Keita is given a guitar by his father. It has no strings but using brake cables that he finds on old bicycles, the boy finally succeeds in luring the first tones out of his new love. Inspired by the old songs his mother used to sing to him when he was a child, Jac begins with his music.
As a teenager, he makes some money as a street musician, plays in various bands and as from the start he likes to make music his own way, he emancipates himself step by step from MBALAX, the musical genre prevailing in West Africa.
10 years later the charismatic frontman will found the band TAKEIFA together with his siblings.

The cohesion of the five Keita siblings is already expressed In the name of the band. TAKEIFA comes from the French slang and game language "VERLAN", in which the syllables are reversed. So Famille Keita = Fa Keita" just becomes "TAKEIFA.”
That is the four Keita brothers Jac, Cheikh, Ibrahima and Fallou and their sister, the bassist Maah Keita.

Whether in the studio or on small and big stages: TAKEIFA are offering us a very special mix of musical authenticity, African joie de vivre and stylistic diversity - sung in French, English, Spanish and in Wolof, the vernacular of Senegal.
But no matter what language TAKEIFA use for their versatile texts and life-affirming messages – their commitment and their solidarity is aimed at all people. Powered by
bass and drums, the irresistible rhythm section, the catchy melodies of the lead singer and band founder Jac Keita rise above all alleged cultural and social barriers and attract fans worldwide with its unique, modern and urban African-folk Pop, mixing playful traditional African elements with Western influences.

Freed from the musical preferences of Mbalax TAKEIFA’s first album "Diaspora" (2008) surprised the astonished listeners with a sound that soon caught the attention of the national and international music scene. After a number of concerts and musical collaborations the following album "Get free" (2012) convincingly showed TAKEIFA’s continuous musical maturation process, their claim to a high international rank and paved the way to Europe for these Senegalese high fliers.
With their third album "Gass Giss" ("Who dares wins" in English translation) and a
subsequent European tour in 2017 the five siblings will again conquer the stages of Europe. Their enthusiastically acclaimed performance in 2015 at the Montreux Festival 2015 has given us a first taste of what to expect.

TAKEIFA are a phenomenon. Record deal with Sony Music? No thanks.
TAKEIFA rather remain faithful to their musical and social roots.

TAKEIFA - One band. One family. One music.