Sandro Joyeux

“Beyond world music and its corny clichés, nearest to Manu Chao and those artists who do not ‘contaminate’ musical styles, but simply transform their life in music, the result of a thousand influences and life experiences”

Sandro Joyeux has been one of the surprises of the “Primo Maggio” 2015 concert in San Giovanni square (Rome). Born in Paris in 1978, globetrotter by vocation, his music is a bridge between Africa and Europe, and in fact he has been called the “white griot”. Sandro Joyeux has travelled for more than half a million kilometers with his guitar to collect traditions and dialects and sounds of the South of the world. He sings in French, English, Italian, Arabic, and in various dialects such as Bambarà, Wolof, Dioulà. In recent years, he played more than three hundred concerts in Italy and abroad, including important concerts such as those at Universal Forum of Cultures in Naples, at the Suona Francese Festival 2014 organized by the Institut Français of Italy, and at the World Refugee Live Day organized by UNHCR in Florence. In 2012 he created the Antischiavitour (Anti-Slavery Tour), a tour to support foreign seasonal laborers in Italy. He played in the tent city of Rosarno, in the Grand Ghetto of Rignano, in Boreano, in Venosa, in Castelvolturno and in Saluzzo, all places that are a symbol of the exploitation of migrant labor. He also collaborated with many important artists: he was lead singer for the opera “Love moves the Moon” written by Eugenio Bennato and staged at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, and together with Toni Esposito he participated to the 2012/2013 editions of “Pino Daniele – Tutta n’ata storia” in Palapartenope of Naples. In 2012, he released his first album “Sandro Joyeux”. In 2013, he collaborated with Save The Children and 25 children of various ethnic groups of the Pisacane Elementary School of Rome for the videoclip of “Kingston” about children who live in poverty. The video for his new single “Elmando”, released in May 2015, is supported by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and was selected by over one hundred of the most prestigious worldwide animation festival. On the 11th of March 2016, Sandro Joyeux has presented his new album “Migrant” at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, featuring some special guests such as Eugenio Bennato, Dean Bowman and Jaka. His inspiration strongly devoted to tell about a world that migrates and changes, makes his message more and more important and relevant.

“Have you ever had the feeling of being transported to a distant place only because of the music and the typical sounds of a land where the rhythm is an emotions catalyst and an instrument of cohesion?”

The Sandro Joyeux concert is an injection of pure energy and joy. It is a mystical journey, accompanied by its warm and intense voice, through the rhythms of the desert and the dusty roads of West Africa, between the Parisian banlieues and the reggae of Jamaican ghettos. A show that lasts an hour and a half for a repertoire that ranges from original songs to the reinterpretations of classic and traditional African songs. Sandro Joyeux sings in French, English, Arabic and several African dialects. He is an ironic and light-hearted performer, enchanting and captivating, just like a griot Sandro Joyeux bewitches the audience with his suggestive travel stories or the legends linked to the songs, he takes people by the hand and make everybody sing out loud in exotic and unknown languages. Whether solo or with the band, the result is always the same, you cannot help but dance.