Votia

On Réunion, Votia continues a family history of maloya carried by Marie-Claude Philéas Lambert. The daughter of Granmoun Lélé — a key figure in reviving this Réunionese repertoire after it was sidelined in the 1970s — she grew up between that legacy and the Malagasy musical traditions transmitted by her mother's family. After touring with her father until his death in 2004, Marie-Claude Philéas Lambert gathered her husband, children and close associates to form Votia, creating a family-group dynamic in which singing circulates among original compositions, choral responses and oral memory. Votia develops a maloya rooted in the island's east, built on polyrhythms, percussion, polyphonic harmonies and lyrics sung in Réunion Creole as well as Malagasy. African, Malagasy and Indian influences are integrated without leaving the maloya framework. The single “Dinibé,” devoted to fieldwork and the songs that accompanied it, announces the 2025 album Vie Kaz.