"My joie de vivre is taken for shamelessness; my thirst for change, for pretension./Faced with my curiosity, my quest for the new,/Conservative minds spread slander," Rokia Traoré sings in "Kôté Don" on her album "Bowmboi" (2004).

Traoré, 30, is a native of Mali who lives in France. She backs herself with traditional Malian instruments and sings in her native language, Bamanan. But she is not traditionally schooled, and doesn't follow traditional Malian songwriting models. She approaches her art as any current American singer-songwriter might, packing her lyrics with intensely personal thoughts and feelings.

"I don't want to do something traditional, even if the instruments I use are traditional," Traoré said from her home in Amiens near Paris. "In the beginning, my music wasn't very popular, because some people couldn't understand what I was trying to do. Now there are some other musicians doing it, but I think what they do is more traditional than what I do."

Traoré will perform at the GlobalFEST concert at the Public Theater in New York on Saturday with her seven-piece band. She isn't currently on tour, and will be traveling to the States for this show only.

"We'll have to bring four musicians from Mali to New York just for this show," she said. "So it was very complicated for us to organize. But it's an important show. It's a well-known festival and there will be many producers and promoters there."

Traoré may return to the States this summer after touring in Europe in the spring. She has been most successful, so far, in Europe. She sold more than 100,000 copies of "Bowmboi" in France alone. "It's a natural thing, to want to have a career in the United States, just to get a larger audience, and a larger market," she said.

The daughter of a diplomat, Traoré spent parts of her childhood in Algeria, Belgium and Saudi Arabia.

"Because I grew up traveling, I got this opportunity to listen to western music, especially jazz and blues and European classical music, because my father used to listen to that," she said. "Later I discovered pop music, country, rap, world music and French music. At the same time, my father used to listen to traditional African music, or modern African music, like Orchestra Baobab (of Senegal). I am not the kind of person who is always listening to just reggae music, or just African music."

On "Bowmboi," released in August on the Nonesuch label, Traoré seems capable of just about anything. She sings with great delicacy on some tracks and with booming power on others. She collaborates on two tracks with the avant-classical Kronos Quartet, but also assures Malians on "Niènafing" that "Even far from you, your values go with me, your teachings comfort me."

Traoré came to Amiens seven years ago to record her first album. "I continued to come several times per year," she said. "Then finally, I stayed here because I got married to someone who lives and works here. It became my city.

"It's not far away from Paris, and at the same time, it's quieter than Paris. I can't stand living in big cities like Paris and London. Maybe I would if I could afford to get a big flat, but for now, because I don't love living in small spaces, I prefer to stay in a city like Amiens."