Salegy is a popular music genre from

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Afric ...

. Originating as a Sub-Saharan African folk music style in the northwestern coastal areas of Madagascar, modern salegy is the genre of

Malagasy music The highly diverse and distinctive music of Madagascar has been shaped by the musical traditions of Southeast Asian music, Southeast Asia, African music, Africa, Oceania, Arabian music, Arabia, England, France and the United States over time as ...

that has gained the widest recognition and commercial popularity in the international market. Its sound is considered emblematic of the island. Eusèbe Jaojoby, a

Sakalava The Sakalava are an ethnic group of Madagascar. They are found on the western and northwest region of the island, in a band along the coast. The Sakalava are one of the smaller ethnic groups, constituting about 6.2 percent of the total populatio ...

singer from Anboahangibe , was a key originator of the style and is widely considered the "King of Salegy". The contemporary, electrified form of popular salegy originated from traditional acoustic roots in northwestern Madagascar around

Mahajanga Mahajanga (French: Majunga) is a city and an administrative district on the northwest coast of Madagascar. The city of Mahajanga (Mahajanga I) is the capital of the Boeny Region. The district (identical to the city) had a population of 220,629 i ...

and

Antsiranana Antsiranana ( mg, Antsiran̈ana ), named Diego-Suárez prior to 1975, is a city in the far north of Madagascar. Antsiranana is the capital of Diana Region. It had an estimated population of 115,015 in 2013. History The bay and city originally ...

in the 1950s. It has been popularized by originators like Jaojoby and relative newcomers such as Ninie Doniah,

Vaiavy Chila Vaiavy Chila, also known as Chila, is a vocalist and composer of ''salegy'' music from the northern coastal region of Madagascar. The most popular female salegy artist of the last decade, she is commonly called the Princess of Salegy in the Malag ...

and Dr. J.B. and the Jaguars. The style is

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the mi ...

y and energetic, dominated by ringing

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...

s, real or synthesized

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a ree ...

, and

call-and-response Call and response is a form of interaction between a speaker and an audience in which the speaker's statements ("calls") are punctuated by responses from the listeners. This form is also used in music, where it falls under the general category of ...

polyphonic vocals, propelled by heavy

electric bass The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and s ...

and a driving

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

section typically including a

drum kit A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

djembe A djembe or jembe ( ; from Maninka language, Malinke ''jembe'' , N'Ko script, N'Ko: ) is a rope-tuned skin-covered goblet drum played with bare hands, originally from West Africa. According to the Bambara people in Mali, the name of the djembe ...

and

shakers The United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, more commonly known as the Shakers, are a millenarian restorationist Christian sect founded in England and then organized in the United States in the 1780s. They were initially ...

. The syncopated,

polyrhythm Polyrhythm is the simultaneous use of two or more rhythms that are not readily perceived as deriving from one another, or as simple manifestations of the same meter. The rhythmic layers may be the basis of an entire piece of music ( cross-rhyt ...

ic beat of salegy is rapid (typically around 290BPM) and features a distinctive percussion pattern performed on a Western drum kit in or time with accents on the 3rd or 7th beat. The melody and harmonies are often in the A minor key and feature beautiful high-life electric guitar and synthesized accordion lines. The sound of salegy can be heard at night clubs, cabarets, parties and dance floors across the island. Salegy represents an electrified version of the ''antsa'' musical style that was traditionally performed at Betsimisaraka and

Tsimihety The Tsimihety are a Malagasy ethnic group who are found in the north-central region of Madagascar.Tsimihety
E ...

rituals. In addition to their commonalities in tempo, vocal style, and tendency toward

minor key In Western music, the adjectives major and minor may describe a chord, scale, or key. As such, composition, movement, section, or phrase may be referred to by its key, including whether that key is major or minor. Intervals Some intervals ...

s (which some attribute to an

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

influence, and which stands in contrast to the

major key In music theory, the key of a piece is the group of pitches, or scale, that forms the basis of a musical composition in classical, Western art, and Western pop music. The group features a '' tonic note'' and its corresponding '' chords'', ...

dominance of Highland music), the salegy shares the antsa's structure in that it always features a middle section called the ''folaka'' ("broken") which is primarily instrumental—voice serves only to urge on more energetic dancing—and during which the vocalists (and the audience) will launch into intricate polyrhythmic hand-clapping to the beat of the music.

Artists and bands

* Anziza Salema *Arsène Félix * Dr. J.B. and the Jaguars *Fenoamby * Eusèbe Jaojoby *Fredy de Majunga *Gérard Tsapalôko *IO Anay * Jaojoby Junior *Joacin-tapaka *Lazard * Mily Clément *Mister Rotsirotsy * Ninie Doniah
Olga del Madagascar
*Paskaal Japhet *SISCA * Tianjama *

* Wawa

References

External links

Definition
{{Genres of African popular music Malagasy musical styles African music genres African popular music Popular music