Sona Jobarteh

Sona Jobarteh is the first professional female kora virtuoso to emerge from any of West Africa’s five Griot dynasties, and a singer, composer and bandleader whose concerts fill some of the world’s finest halls. In 2026 she sold out the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, played Munich’s Prinzregententheater and the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, and on October 11 received the Silicon Valley African Film Festival’s 2026 Icon Award for her contributions to African music, scholarship and cultural promotion.

On stage, Sona sings and plays the 21-string kora and guitar, joined by Eric Appapoulay, also on guitar, Andi McLean on bass, Yuval Wetzler on drums, Anselmo Neto on percussion and her son, Sidiki Jobarteh, on balafon. The show blends Mandé griot tradition with blues, Afropop and contemporary songwriting. She has also toured with blues legend Taj Mahal.

Her concerts have become events wherever she plays. She has performed more than a hundred shows across Europe, Africa, the United States and beyond, in some of the world’s most prestigious theaters and festivals, with sell-outs at London’s Barbican, Cologne’s Philharmonie and the Seine Musicale in Paris, and appearances at the Hollywood Bowl, Symphony Space in New York and WOMAD Australia and New Zealand. Her latest album, Badinyaa Kumoo, was named one of the best albums of its year by Songlines Magazine, and her single “Gambia” has passed 32 million YouTube views. Recent collaborations include a feature on LL Cool J’s album The FORCE, on the song “Black Code Suite”, and a guest appearance on “Se a Vida Pede” from the Brazilian group Gilsons’ latest album.

Born in London into a Gambian griot lineage of seven centuries, she began learning the kora at age three with her brother Tunde Jegede and father Sanjally Jobarteh; her cousin was the late Toumani Diabaté. She studied at the Royal College of Music, the Purcell School of Music and SOAS University of London. In 2015 she founded The Gambia Academy, which puts African history and culture at the centre of its curriculum, and she has keynoted forums hosted by the UN and the World Trade Organization. In 2023 Berklee College of Music awarded her an honorary Doctorate in Music alongside Usher and Roberta Flack.