Kassav Band

Kassav Band

Kassav Band, founded in 1979, created and popularized Zouk music which is still the French musical expression that spread the most around the world in the last 30 years! The name of the band is Antillean Creole for a local dish made from cassava root. In 1979 Guadeloupean sound technician and bass player Pierre-Edouard Décimus and guitarist Jacob Desvarieux formed Kassav’, the group that integrated the diverse styles of mizik zouk, injected the mixture with a contemporary urban, studio-produced sound, and marketed the new music as zouk. With the overwhelming commercial success in 1984 of their song “Zouk-la sé sèl médikaman nou ni” (“Zouk Is the Only Medicine We Have”), zouk was firmly established as a new and viable Caribbean dance music genre. Kassav’ has sold millions of albums worldwide. In the last ten years, the band has performed at more than 400 live concerts for over 2 million fans. The band’s first concert of its 40th Anniversary tour staged at the Paris La Défense Arena in May 2019 was attended by more than 34,000 fans. Its world tour included Africa, Europe, and North and South America.

Song

n/a

Type

Performing Arts

Category

Contribution to the Performing Arts

Country

France/French Antilles

Awarded

SUNSHINE Award for Contribution to the Performing Arts

Award Year

2021

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