Bagayoko and his wife, the blind duo Amadou and Mariam became one of Africa’s best-selling and beloved music industry performers.

Grammy-nominated Mali musician Amadou Bagayoko has earned global fame, shaping traditional West African sounds with the influence of West African rock and pop music, while half of the blind duo Amadou and Mariam were 70 years old.

The Mali Ministry of Culture “learned from the death of artist Amadou Bagayoko on Friday,” it said in a statement on national television on Saturday.

“Amadu is a blind man who has left his mark on Marian and the international stage.”

Bagayoko died in the city of Bamako, his birthplace. His stepson Youssouf Fadiga told AFP that the musicians had “had been sick for a while” but had not specified what the disease was. His wife and son, Sam, also a musician, survived.

“Blind couple from Mali”

Known as “the blind couple from Mali”, Amadou and Mariam became one of Africa’s best-selling couples, playing with Damon Albarn of Blur and Gorillaz and David Gilmour, Pink Floyd guitarist – a childhood idol.

Bagayoko was born in 1954 and became blind at the age of 15 due to congenital cataracts. He studied music at the Institute of Young Blind in Mali, where he met his future wife, Mariam Doumbia. The couple formed the band Mali’s Blind Couple in 1980, leaving their mark on their own locally and internationally.

Initially, they sang songs to raise awareness of the problems faced by their blind and disabled peers before blending the influence of African traditions with elements of rock, blues and pop to gain global followers.

They wrote 10 award-winning albums for Dimanche a Bamako in 2005, including Victoire de la Musique in France and again offered Folila in 2013. Dimanche A Bamako also won one of the BBC World Music Broadcasting Awards in 2006.

Their 2008 album Winew to Mali was nominated for Best Contemporary World Music Album in the Grammy Awards for Best Contemporary World Music Album.

They opened for British band Coldplay in 2009 and performed at the Nobel Peace Prize concert the same year that US President Barack Obama won the award.

Bagayogo’s last world-class performance in Doumbia was at the closing ceremony of the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris.

French-born Spanish musician Manu Chao produced the album Dimanche A Bamako and joined other international artists to express his condolences online. He said, “Amadu! We will always be together wherever you go….”

“I will never forget his friendship,” said Senegalese singer and songwriter Youssou N’dour. “My thoughts are with my dear Mariam.”