Fally Ipupa

Born in Kinshasa in 1977, Fally Ipupa honed his craft in the bands of the Congolese capital before joining Koffi Olomidé’s Quartier Latin in the late 1990s, where he stood out as a singer and songwriter. After this formative chapter, he launched a solo career in the mid-2000s and gradually established himself on the Congolese rumba and ndombolo scene. His debut album, Droit Chemin, was released in 2006, followed by Arsenal de Belles Mélodies in 2009 and Power Kosa Leka in 2013, confirming his taste for melodic arrangements and soukous-inspired guitar work. With Tokooos (2017) and Control (2018), Ipupa embraced a more afro-urban direction blending rumba, pop, R&B and hip-hop influences, a path he continued with Tokooos II (2020) and Formule 7 (2022). Splitting his time between Kinshasa and Paris, he collaborates widely with artists from Africa and the Francophone world, and performs across Europe, Africa and North America, while remaining closely associated with Lingala songwriting in which romantic ballads and dance tracks play a central role.