Senegal music and Tanzania music. Music for the soul.

NEEMA MUGALA BAND

For over thirty years, Neema Mugala has been part of the Ottawa music scene. You know her in: SIFA, VOICES OF PRAISE, CHEZA, MALAIKA, and as a back-up singer with THE MIGHTY POPO, and ELAGE.  Eight years ago, she added to the list with the debut of her solo band, the NEEMA MUGALA band.

As the director of Sifa, an Afrikan A Cappella choir, Neema has been singing and promoting the praise of Afrika and Afrikans for as long as she can remember. Through her solo band, Neema steps it up to another level fusing her full band Afrikan sound with her personal style of R&B. Her experiences through her participation in other groups have allowed her to delight audiences across North America and Europe, and with The NEEMA MUGALA BAND, she plans on continuing that journey.

ELAGE

*Released second album "Diame" in 2014 Namination, Canadian
Folk Music Awards 2015 * Released debut album "Askane" in
2010 * Winner, Canadian Folk Music Awards, "Best World
Group", 2007 (with The Mighty Popo) * 5 national tours and 1
international tour with The Mighty Popo (2002 to 2009) * JUNO
Awards Show performance, 2010 (with The Mighty Popo) * JUNO
Award nomination, 2012 (with Soul jazz Orchestra) *
Performances include CBC Songwriters Showcase, Black History
Month (National Arts Centre), UNICEF Fight Against Racism
Biography Originally from Senegal, West Africa, Elage arrived in Canada with his family in 1986. A descendant of a large griot family, Elage started to play traditional percussion instruments and
rhythms at eight years of age. He met Les Frères Diouf in
Montreal in 1999, and performed with them in the Nuits d’Afrique
festival and other events. From 2002 to 2009, Elage toured five
times nationally and once internationally as part of the
award-winning world music ensemble, Mighty Popo. He also performed in 2010 at the Juno music awards in Toronto.

For the past ten years, Elage and his band have performed at
numerous festivals and concert venues. He has collaborated and
performed with a wide range of artists, including Lynn Milles, Jim
Bryson, Lucie Idlout, Sarah Hallman and Soul jazz Orchestra.
Elage released his first solo album, Aksane, in 2010 in collaboration with Abdou Sy. He released his second solo album,
Diame (peace), on October 23, 2014. It features songs in French,
English and Wolof, inspired by various periods in his life and
feelings of sorrow, joy, poverty, prosperity and betrayal.