Lost in SF, Concert Preview >>
Staff Benda Bilili is a group of street musicians from Kinshasa, Congo.
Staff Benda Bilili released its first album in 2009 Très Très Fort. They started at the same time a wide concerts tour in Europ and were acclaimed by the critics. Two French filmmakers, Renaud Barret et Florent de la Tullaye, met the band in Kinshasa and directed a documentary that tells their story and their amazing path from Kinshasa to European stages. The movie Benda Bilili premiered at the 2010 Cannes Festival at the Director's Fortnight event.
Misery, distress, poverty, chaos, violence, disease... a whole mix, the Congo's day to day life, Kinshasa's routine, are expressed and depicted in their songs and music that find their roots in Congolese Rumba, Reggae but also Blues.
In spite of their handicap, Staff Benda Bilili people are really willing to generate hope and confindence. One of their key messages is: the only real handicaps are not in the body but in the mind.
Staff Benda Bilili literally means "look beyond appearances". The band performed on September 6 at the Royal Albert Hall in London, for the Paralympic games. What a symbol!
They just released their second album "Bouger le monde" and their goal is to support thir association to help kids in Kinshasa.
Inspired and Inspiring!
10/25/12 >> go there