44 World music musicians

Bola Abimbola is a vocalist, recording artist, and record producer from Lagos, Nigeria.

Chief Sunday Adeniyi Adegeye, known professionally as King Sunny Adé, is a Nigerian jùjú singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He is regarded as one of the first African pop musicians to gain international success, and has been called one of the most influential musicians of all time.

Ana Alcaide is a Spanish performer, composer and music producer who carries out research on ancient traditions and cultures.

Carlos Azevedo was a Portuguese composer and pianist.

Majid Bekkas, also known as Abdelmajid Bekkas, is a Moroccan musician on guembri, oud, guitar and vocals, who is internationally known for his contributions to World music and Ethno jazz with North African roots.

Miklós Both (born 3 June 1981, Budapest) is a Hungarian composer, performer, folklorist, singer for the band Napra, guitarist, and vitar violin player. He won the Fonogram and Budai awards, and honored with the Hungarian Gold Cross of Merit. His folklore film database has recordings from Ukraine, China, Transylvania, Iran, India and others. In 2015, he was chosen by Öröm a Zene! as musician of the year.

Surojit Chatterjee is a singer, musician, songwriter and the lead singer of Bengali band Bhoomi and owner of his solo band Surojit O Bondhura. He has won the Radio Mirchi Music Award as the Best Male vocalist of the year 2012 and 2013 for his album titled Folkira . He has also directed music for the following Bengali movies like Ichhe, Muktodhara, Handa and Bhonda.

Corin Curschellas is a Swiss singer-songwriter, vocalist, free improvisation, actress, voice actress in as well as voice instructress.

Sandeep Das is an Indian Tabla player and composer currently based in Boston, MA.

Yinka Davies is a Nigerian vocalist, dancer, lyricist and judge of reality show, Nigerian Idol. Yinka has been in the Nigerian entertainment industry for 28 years.

Emmanuel N'Djoké "Manu" Dibango was a Cameroonian musician and songwriter who played saxophone and vibraphone. He developed a musical style fusing jazz, funk, and traditional Cameroonian music. His father was a member of the Yabassi ethnic group, while his mother was a Duala. He was best known for his 1972 single "Soul Makossa". He died from COVID-19 on 24 March 2020.

Pape Cheikh Diouf known by his stage name Pape Diouf, is a musical artist from Dakar, Senegal.

Celso Duarte is a virtuoso of Paraguayan harp and Mexican jarocho harp, arranger, singer, and multi-talented instrumentalist. Duarte has performed and recorded with Lila Downs since 1998 and has also accompanied and collaborated with other artists, including Susana Baca, Celso Piña, Plácido Domingo, Mariza, Ramón Vargas, Julieta Venegas, Wynton Marsalis, The Chieftains and Ry Cooder. As a solo artist, he has performed with his band at Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Joe's Pub and other historic venues. His first solo album, "De Sur a Sur ", was released in 2006.

Madjid Fahem is a French guitarist born in Paris in 1973. He is member of Manu Chao band from 2000.

Ustad Zakir Hussain is an Indian tabla virtuoso, composer, percussionist, music producer and film actor. He is the eldest son of tabla player Ustad Allah Rakha.

K1 De Ultimate, is a Nigerian Fuji musician. He popularized a brand of the fuji genre based on the work of the fuji creator Ayinde Barrister known as Talazo fuji that appeals to all age groups, irrespective of tribe and background.

Amit Kavthekar is an Indian tabla player known as the last ganda-bandhan of Utd. Allarakha Khansaheb and a prominent disciple of Utd. Zakir Hussain. Kavthekar is regarded as one of the leading young artists of Indian Classical music and tabla.

Salif Keïta is an African singer-songwriter from Mali. He is notable not only because of his reputation as the "Golden Voice of Africa" but also because he has albinism. He is a member of the Keita royal family of Mali.

Habib Koité is a Malian musician, singer, songwriter and griot based in Mali. His band, Bamada, was a supergroup of West African musicians, which included Kélétigui Diabaté on balafon.

Rolinha Kross is a Dutch singer with a Jewish/Czech mother and a Surinamese father. From an early age, she was fascinated by Eastern European music and the Yiddish language. She performed with various groups, a.o. with her mother, Ilona Cechova, under the name "Sense". She followed the vocalprogram in jazz and light music at the Conservatory in Hilversum.

Fahad Al Kubaisi is a Qatari singer, record producer, fashion model and human rights activist. His voice has been described as a "tender" baritone.

Fela Aníkúlápó Kuti, also known as Abami Eda, was a Nigerian multi-instrumentalist, bandleader, composer, political activist, and Pan-Africanist. He is regarded as the pioneer of Afrobeat, an African music genre that combines traditional Yoruba percussion and vocal styles with American funk and jazz. At the height of his popularity, he was referred to as one of Africa's most "challenging and charismatic music performers". AllMusic described him as a "musical and sociopolitical voice" of international significance.

Olufela Olufemi Anikulapo Kuti, popularly known as Femi Kuti, is a Nigerian musician born in London and raised in Lagos. He is the eldest son of Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti and a grandchild of political campaigner, women's rights activist and traditional aristocrat Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti.

Oluseun Anikulapo Kuti, who is called by the name Seun Kuti, is a Nigerian musician, singer and the youngest son of the famous Afrobeat pioneer, Fela Kuti. Seun leads his father's former band Egypt 80.

Zenzile Miriam Makeba, nicknamed Mama Africa, was a South African singer, songwriter, actress, United Nations goodwill ambassador, and civil rights activist. Associated with musical genres including Afropop, jazz, and world music, she was an advocate against apartheid and white-minority government in South Africa.

Driss El Maloumi is a Moroccan composer and performer on the oud, the Arabic short-necked lute. He is mainly known for playing in solo or trio formations under his own name, for his long-standing cooperation with Catalan musician and musical director Jordi Savall, as well as for being a member of the group 3MA, comprising three popular African string instrumentalists.

Kostis Maraveyas or Kostis Maravegias, also known by his stage name Maraveyas ilegál or just Maraveyas, is a Greek singer-songwriter, composer, performer, director, TV presenter and writer. He plays the accordion, piano, guitar, hammond, farfisa and he sings in Greek, English, Spanish and Italian. Although he began his musical career in the underground and alternative music scene of Italy and Greece, as of 2015 Maraveyas has reached wider audiences and is considered as a well known songwriter-performer in Greece.

Carmen Miranda, was a Portuguese-born Brazilian samba singer, dancer, Broadway actress and film star who was active from the 1930s onwards. Nicknamed "The Brazilian Bombshell", Miranda is known for her signature fruit hat outfit that she wore in her American films. As a young woman, she designed hats in a boutique before making her first recordings with composer Josué de Barros in 1929. Miranda's 1930 recording of "Taí ", written by Joubert de Carvalho, catapulted her to stardom in Brazil as the foremost interpreter of samba.

Youssou N'Dour is a Senegalese singer, songwriter, musician, composer, occasional actor, businessman, and politician. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine described him as, "perhaps the most famous singer alive" in Senegal and much of Africa. From April 2012 to September 2013, he was Senegal's Minister of Tourism.

Poranguí is a world music multi-instrumentalist known for solo improvisational live looping. Born in São José dos Campos, Brazil, he grew up in the cultures of Brazil, Mexico and the southwestern United States. He currently resides in Sedona, Arizona.

Uppalapu Rajesh is an Indian mandolin player in Carnatic classical music, a music producer and a composer.

Fadia Dirawi, more known by her artistic name Ralana, is a Swedish singer, songwriter, record producer and DJ. Dirawi is also the CEO and founder of Xlency Records.

Thierry Robin known as Titi Robin, is a French composer and improviser. His style combines Mediterranean world including Gypsy, Oriental and European cultures. He plays guitar, buzuq, mandolin and ’oud.

Bernd Ruf is a German conductor and clarinettist. In 2004, Ruf was appointed a new professorship in popular music, jazz, and world music at the Lübeck University of Music.

Manoochehr Sadeghi is a Persian-American naturalized citizen, born in Tehran, Iran. He is considered a Grandmaster or Ostad of the santur, a Persian hammered dulcimer. He has been lecturing, teaching, recording and performing Persian classical music on the santur professionally for over 50 years. In 2002, Sadeghi received the Durfee Foundation Master Musician Award and he is a recipient of a 2003 National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts, which is the United States' highest honor in the folk and traditional arts.

Sara Larsson, known professionally by her stage name SaRaha, is a Swedish-Tanzanian singer and songwriter. She first achieved public attention in Sweden during Melodifestivalen 2016.

Yandé Codou Sène was a Senegalese singer from the Serer ethnic group. She was born in 1932 at Somb in the Sine-Saloum delta and died on July 15, 2010 at Gandiaye in Sénégal. She was the official griot of president Léopold Sédar Senghor. Most of her music is in the Serer language.

Dragi Šestić is a Bosnian music producer, sound engineer, director of music video clips and record label owner. In 1998 he founded the first Bosnian World Music band, Mostar Sevdah Reunion. He rediscovered almost forgotten Gypsy music legends from ex-Yugoslavia Šaban Bajramović and Ljiljana Buttler-Petrović and brought them into the spotlight of the international World Music scene.

Anupam Shobhakar is an Indian musician, composer, instrumentalist, record producer, and classically trained sarodist currently living in Brooklyn, New York. He has released three world fusion albums, and one classical Indian music album. He has performed live around the world at various venues and for charitable causes. Shobhakar's track "Water" made it to the first round of the Grammy Awards.

Uppalapu Srinivas was an Indian mandolin player in Carnatic classical music and composer. Because he was a child prodigy, he was sometimes called the Mozart of classical Indian music.

Klaus Hinrich Stahmer is a German composer and musicologist. He gave added to the development of music in the 1980s through multimedia works, including music with sound art sculptures and musical graphic). He also broke new artistic ground with his compositions for non-European instruments, which can be classified as world music.

Sergey Nikolaevich Starostin is a Russian folk and jazz composer and performer, famous for his modern interpretations of archaic Russian folk music. In his compositions, he sings, plays folk flutes, reed instruments and gusli.

Alan Steward is a Dutch producer who produced hits for the likes of Baha Men and five time Grammy winners Dennis Edwards and Eddie Kendricks both original members of The Temptations. Their single "Get it While It's Hot" became a club hit and went on to spawn four remixes. He has currently 6 albums to his name, the latest is the Reggae album "Rise Up", released in 2018.

Peter Van Gelder is a sitarist and musician who played saxophone and bass in The Great Society.