Anne-Marie Nzié
(Cameroon)

Djembe
Biography
Anne-Marie Nzié is one of the veterans of Cameroonian modern music. She is more or less of the same generation as Manu Dibango, Francis Bebey, Mama Ohandja, Marthe Zambo, and Jean Bikoko, and she was, for some time, nearly forgotten, until a new CD « Béza Ba Dzo » was released, which was the starting point of a renewed career.

She started singing at the age of eight, in her village, after she fell out of a mango tree. Singing was a way of coping with the pain and a long and slow recovery. Her professional career began around 1953, in the era of 78 rpm discs.
When she married, her career had stopped temporarily, but in 1962, she made a first come-back. She gained popularity until the early 1970s with a mixture of bikutsi, assiko and bolobo music.

In 1984, she made a second come-back with the album « Liberté ». As mentioned earlier, she recorded a new album in 1998, and made a first re-appearance at the Rencontres Musicales de Yaoundé in December 1998, which was the starting point of an international tour in 1999.


• Musicians on the album « Béza Ba Dzo »:
Zacharie Onana (guitar);
Nembot T. Sandjo (synthesizer);
Jean-Paul Lietcheu (bass);
Joseph Kede (tam-tam);
Guy-Vincent Nwogang (percussion);
"Steve" Tebede Ndzana (drums).



Born: as Anne-Marie Nvounga, in Bibia Lolodorf (South Province), 1932
Died: 24 May 2016, in Yaoundé
Style: Bikutsi

Anne-Marie Nzié
 Anne-Marie Nzié   


Discography
Title Year Label Remarks
Béza Ba Dzo 1998 Indigo LBLC 2543
Liberté 1984 Ebobolo Fia Production TC 0005 LP
Sara 1976 Pathé 2C 062-15.807 LP
Anne-Marie Nzie 1975 Pathé 2C 062-15.760 LP

Sources
 

Page added April 2000