Marie Daulne

Marie Daulne (born 20 October 1964) is a Belgian singer.

Daulne was born in Isiro, Haut-Uele District, Democratic Republic of the Congo to a Belgian who was killed that same year by Simba rebels, and to a local Congolese woman.

Daulne and her mother and sisters were airlifted out to Kinshasa in an emergency evacuation by Belgian paratroopers and flown to Belgium because their father had been a Belgian citizen.

Daulne is the founder and lead singer of the music group Zap Mama whose second album, Adventures in Afropea 1, "became 1993's best-selling world music album and established Zap Mama as an international concert sensation."

With "over six albums and countless concerts, she continues to pay tribute to the family's saviors."

Daulne insists that "one tune on each of her reggae-, soul-, funk- and hip-hop-infused albums be a traditional Pygmy song."

Daulne says her mission is to be a bridge between the European and the African and bring the two cultures together with her music.

"What I would like to do is bring sounds from [Africa] and bring it to the Western world, because I know that through sound and through beats, that people discover a new culture, a new people, a new world."

Daulne specializes in polyphonic, harmonic music with a mixture of heavily infused African instruments, R&B, and Hip-hop and emphasizes voice in all her music.

"The voice is an instrument itself," says Daulne.

"It's the original instrument. The primary instrument. The most soulful instrument, the human voice."

Daulne calls her music afro-European.

Daulne was born in Isiro, Haut-Uele District, one of the largest cities in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as the fourth child of a white civil servant, Cyrille Daulne, a Walloon (French-speaking Belgian) and Bernadette Aningi, a woman from Kisangani, formerly Stanleyville, the third largest city in Congo Kinshasa.

When Daulne was only a week old, her father was attacked and killed by Simba rebels, who were opposed to mixed-race relationships.

"He did not have a chance to come with us because he was captured," Daulne says.

"He said to my mother, 'Escape,' and we escaped into the forest, and the Pygmies hide us while we were waiting to see what happens," says Daulne.

"He was a prisoner of the rebels for a while, then they killed him."

Her mother was arrested by the rebels but was later set free because she spoke their language.

Daulne pays tribute to those pygmies who rescued her family in the song "Gati" from Supermoon.

"They saved my family and many others during the Congolese rebellion," Daulne says, "and they deserve recognition for that."

"My promise to them was I used your song to be known in the world and my goal is to talk about you," Daulne added.

After eight months in the interior of the country, Daulne and her mother, brother and sisters were eventually airlifted out to Isiro in an emergency evacuation by Belgian paratroopers and flown to Belgium because their father had been a Belgian citizen.

"I think the experience of the political situation is more my mother, who had to survive. I was a baby, and I just was protected by my mother. What I know that I learned from my mother is to be strong and to stay positive in any kind of situation; that's the best weapon to survive. That's what I learned, and this is the main message I pass into my music," says Daulne.

Everything was different when Daulne, her mother, five other sisters, and an aunt arrived in Belgium.

"When we arrived, it was snowing, and my mother said, 'Look — the country of white people is white!'" says Daulne.

Growing up in Belgium was hard for Daulne.

"It was hard as a kid, you want to look like everybody else, and there aren’t many black people in Belgium – compared to England, or America or France," says Daulne.

"It became easier as I grew older. There were more black role models about – musicians and sports stars. At school I started to see my mixed heritage as a bonus – I could be part of both the African and Belgian communities."

Daulne listened to European music as she grew up.

"We had the radio when I was growing up in Belgium, so we heard a lot of French music. And of course, American music was also very popular all over Europe. Since our mother did not want us to watch TV in our home, we entertained ourselves by creating our own music. We were very musical."

Daulne was introduced to black music watching television.

"When I was growing up, there weren't many black people in Europe -- my family was alone. Then I saw an American musical comedy with black people on TV. And I couldn't believe it. I said, "That's us!" My whole fantasy life was based on that movie."

Daulne felt a special connection to blue songs like Damn your eyes by Etta James.

"When I was a teenager I listened to a lot of American blues," says Daulne.

"That song brought me happiness while I was going through the pain of a broken love. It helped me to open the door and see the life in front of me."

Daulne said she sang that song as a teenager "alone in my room."

"It’s a magic song, it transforms — when I sang that song I cried, and you need to cry to heal."

"I sing it now and I hope, in my turn, that I can help another teenager to do the same if they are having pain from love."

When Daulne was 14 she went to England and first heard reggae.

Daulne was raised in Belgium and as of 2007 calls Brussels home, but lived in New York City for three years starting in 2000.