N’famady Kouyaté is a young, energetic master musician from Conakry, Guinea, who relocated to Cardiff, Wales, in 2019. A talented multi-instrumentalist who wowed audiences across the UK and Ireland during autumn/winter 2019/20 with his modern interpretations of traditional West African Mandingue songs and rhythms, supporting Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals on the Pang! album tour. 

N’famady’s primary instrument is the balafon – the traditional wooden xylophone, sacred to West African culture and his family heritage of the griot/djeli. In Guinea, he founded Les Héritiers du Mandingue, a tradi-modern group that toured extensively in West Africa. 

In the UK, he has played both as a solo artist and with a full band line-up, where his arrangements are a fusion of Mandingue African with Western jazz, pop, indie, and funk influences provided by an ever-evolving collective of musicians. Instrumentation includes balafon, keyboards, drum kit, djembe, guitar, bass, kora, doundoun, congas, saxophone, trumpet, and calabash. His performances create amazing atmospheres and vibrations wherever he goes, and audiences are charmed by his infectious enthusiasm and joy. 

During the 2020 lockdown, N’famady participated in a number of online events including DarloDrum Fest, Ara Deg festival online, Out Of Focus Wales, and Gwyl 2021 festival – but due to COVID-19 restrictions was only able to do solo sets. He did play one socially distanced pop-up gig with a full band line-up, plus special guest Gruff Rhys, as part of Butetown Carnival in Cardiff Bay in September 2020. The summer of 2021, however, saw the band performing at the Wales Millennium Centre, Llangollen Fringe Festival, and taking Green Man Festival by storm, headlining the Chai Wallah stage. 

N’famady released his first EP in July 2021, recorded in the legendary Rockfield Studios, with a full band line-up, including guest appearances from Gruff Rhys, Lisa Jên Brown (9Bach), and Kliph Scurlock (The Flaming Lips). The EP features mash-ups of traditional Guinean songs with new Welsh lyrics, alongside modern and traditional instrumentation, played by a ten-piece band. N’famady has a steadily growing fanbase both in the UK and West Africa. 

In 2022, N’famady hit the road for a debut twenty-date UK tour, and since then has been a regular fixture of the UK festival scene, including Glastonbury, Cambridge Folk, In It Together, Bearded Theory, Belfast Mela, The Great Escape, as well as main stage slots at Latitude and Shrewsbury Folk, and renowned international events such as South by Southwest and Eurosonic. N’famady won the Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition in 2023, further signalling a bright future for this rising star.