Bopol Mansiamina

Bopol was born in Congo-Kinshasa in 1949. He is a guitarist, vocalist, arranger and producer. His long and varied career as a musician started when he joined Orchestre Bamboula with Papa Noel twenty years later, in 1969. He has been associated with some other bands, namely Rock A Mambo and Africa Fiesta Sukisa with Docteur Nico. Bopol was one of the co-founders of Orchestre Continental in 1971 and at this point began to compose and released 3 singles. During 1973-1976 Bopol was with Tabu Ley's Afrisa then in 1976 he went on to found the group Ya Toupas with Ray Lema and Manuaku. He decided to go to West Africa in 1978, joining Sam Mangwana, Lokassa and Dizzy Mandjeku in Africa All Stars first in Abidjan, then Lomé. A year after that he went solo and released the albums Pitie, je veux la reconciliation, Marriage Force and Manuela. In 1982 Bopol settled in France and, with Syran Mbenza, Nyboma and Wuta Mayi, formed the very well-known Les Quatres Etoiles. Later in 1998 he recorded an album, The Very Best of Bopol on which he is accompanied by several other top Congolese musicians. More recently Bopol has featured as composer, guitarist and producer on Samba Mapangala's recordings, Ujumbe (2001) and Song and Dance (2006). The year 2002 was a year of lots more successes for Bopol, including touring with Mose Fan Fan's Somo Somo in Britain. Bopol played rhythm guitar on Déesse Mukangi's new album, Lettre Anonyme, 2002, and composed the title track. Another musician Bopol has worked closely with is Ricardo Lemvo - he was the guitarist on many of the tracks on Ricardo's São Salvador album, and composed 'Manuela' on Mambo Yoyo. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.