Doudou Nganga

Doudou Nganga graduated from fine Arts in Kinshasa (Republic Democratic of Congo). He obtained a grant to further his studies in Spain, in the University of Valencia (2003). As soon as he arrived he started his pedagogic endeavour with a definite aim: to bring the African culture, so unknown in our societies, closer to the Western world.

With this objective he created the Lokolé Project which mixed artistic perspectives through singing, percussion, dance and painting. He recorded 4 albums with the band Lokolé: Namu (2007), Lokolé acoustic Live (2010), Malube Malube (2011) y Libende (2012), https://soundcloud.com/proyectolokol/.

In his solo trajectory he produced the albums Brut (2014) in which he used the voice with recycled objects converted in instruments, and Muinda (2013).
Doudou has dedicated his life to transmit and share through music, dance and other forms of art the culture in which he was brought up to become a human being, between African roots thousands-year-old and the modern world that make today Congo and Kinshasa, a country and a city torn apart by wars created by the apetite of our world for the wealth of its soil.

Since the release of Lokuta (2023) Doudou has shared and promoted his message through workshops directed to all audiences but in particular children and based on singing, dancing and percussions in schools and cultural centers or associations.

Doudou has been working on his album Tokororo with a great team of professionnals in Valencia (Spain) and the financial support of patrons through a fundraiser intitiative on the Spanish platform Verkami.
The album integrates all those encounters that have shaped his life in a new and vaster musical work.
The title Tokororo refers to the tocororo, a magnificent bird endemic to Cuba that doesn’t survive very long in captivity and is therefore a symbol of freedom.
And freedom in his artistic and life path has been a road of many turns, love stories and up-and-downs to eventually find oneself again, cure the scars of the soul until a new metamorphosis. Tokororo will be released by the end of Spetember 2025.

The project originated with the Doudou Nganga Afro-jazz quartet and the Doudou Nganga The Band, a musical space for experimentation formed by 6 talented musicians coming from various continents, a powerful combo as seen in El Poborina Folk Festival (2022): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9FG320E3Ts

Doudou Nganga The Band mixes lyrics in Lingala (Congo main language with French) with African and Afro-Latin rythms, Afrobeat and jazz nuances that remind us of Fela Kuti and the profound voices of Congo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVeogvtzTRo

Doudou tthroughout his career has performed in national festivals such as La mar de Músicas, Etnosur, Viña Rock, Rototom Sunsplash and Womex. He has been on the same ticket and sometimes has shared the stage with famous artists of the stature of Manu Chao, Ojo de Brujo, Femi Kuti, Toumani Diabaté, Hugh Masekela, Neneh Cherry, Calle 13.

Media and the press
https://247valencia.com/live-review-doudou-nganga-ignites-valencias-mati...