Bakhan is a distinctly modern Mauritanian musician.
A songwriter, composer and performer, Bakhan has woven together the rich influences of his culture and country, his travels and personal experiences, to create profoundly original music.
The jury of the "Prix Découvertes RFI 2009", Radio France International's 2009 African Music Awards, recognized his extraordinary voice and captivating style, and placed him amongst the top three finalists of over 400 African musicians.
In January 2011, Bakhan released his album "N'deysan", produced and recorded in Paris. He plays regularly at Paris's known contemporary venues.
Bakhan writes and sings in Wolof, Fulani and Hassanya (Mauritanian Arabic).
He creates modern Mauritanian music that transcends both ethnic divisions and musical genres.
Bakhan describes his style as an inspired fusion of the rich traditions of both Africa and the West, with hints of funk, soul and blues.
His body of work paints a very real and yet strongly hopeful picture of his experiences of Africa and the world.
Bakhan was born in 1981 on the banks of the Senegal River in Rosso, Mauritania, of an ancestry that combines the four major ethnic groups of his country: the Fula, the Maures (Moor), the Wolof and the Soninke peoples.
He began his singing career at age 10, after fleeing the ethnic violence in Mauritania in 1989 that drove his entire family to Senegal as refugees. This experience of violence and injustice at this early age crystallized Bakhan's dreams of seeing his home country become a united, peaceful and thriving nation. For many years since his repatriation, he has played in Mauritania and Senegal.
In the course of this journey into his musical roots, Bakhan has worked with many of Mauritania's best known artists.
His most powerful dream is to create a modern Mauritanian music that describes and celebrates a culturally diverse but united Mauritanian people.