Bébé Baya

Laouratou Barry aka Bebe Baya is a celebrated singer-songwriter from Guinea, West Africa. She is the daughter of Aisha Dioubaté, a singer who enjoyed many hit songs in the country during the 1990s.

As a young child, Bebe Baya used to hum and imitate her mother's songs. She quickly developed a passion for singing, but sadly it was in tragic circumstances that her career really started. Following the death of her mother, still young, despairing and inconsolable, with the help of her grandmother she wrote the song ‘Tombolola’. An ode to the mother who had left too early to see her child grow.

Bebe Baya’s tribute song was broadcast on radio and became a huge success. Her uncle encouraged her by financing her first album, Tombolola, released to great acclaim in 2011.

Her second album ‘Nkhafourou’, released in 2014, was also a resounding success. However, in keeping the promise she had made to her mother, Bebe Baya decided to pause making music whilst devoting herself to further studies. She completed her degree in banking and insurance in 2017.

Today, Bebe Baya music is well-known across Guinea and crosses generations. Her exceptional voice, forged in the pure traditions of Mandinka singers, combines with urban sounds to represent a style commonly known as Pop Manding. A new direction, without betraying her Mandinka heritage, expresses its typical vocal intensity with youthful soul and feeling.