By Bob Young

Dobet Gnahore, a 25-year-old singer from the Ivory Coast, was the surprise hit of last year's Acoustic Africa show. She picked up where she left off at her Boston showcase debut Wednesday night at the Museum of Fine Arts' Remis Auditorium.

One of the new generation of African artists who are rewriting the rules about respecting musical tradition, the charismatic Gnahore (pronounced nah-hoe-ray), who now lives in France, was as much cultural ambassador as scintillating performer. Veteran Afropop queen Angelique Kidjo would have been proud.

The rewrite began with Gnahore's stripped-down band, a trio comprised of drums, electric bass and her French guitarist husband, Colin Laroche de Feline, that packed a powerful rhythmic punch. It also left plenty of room for Gnahore to exhibit serious instrumental chops of African thumb piano, drum and hoddu lute. But most of all the group provided the perfect complement to a truly breathtaking voice.

That voice -- soaring or plaintive, softly caressing, guttural or muscular -- drove home Gnahore's pan-African vision. It was a fusion of languages and styles that eschewed borders as it dug into themes common to many peoples in Africa: poverty, AIDS, women's equality, all tempered by shots of peace-and-love optimism.

Drawing mostly from her new CD, "Na Afriki," Gnahore sang in French, as well as in Wolof from West Africa, Xhosa from South Africa, and Guere and Dia from the Ivory Coast. The stylistic influences were similarly disparate: bright, ringing soukous and driving Congolese rumbas, buoyant reggae and the occasional slinky Middle Eastern rhythm.

Gnahore's not-so-secret weapon for lifting her performance to another level was her wild, acrobatic dancing, which she saved for exactly the right moments. The MFA crowd suspected there was even more to Gnahore than they'd witnessed before or heard about and she proved them absolutely right.