Senny Camara is a kora (harp-lute) and guitar player, singer, composer and sound engineer. Raised by a traditional healer grandmother, Camara fell in love with the kora at the age of seven but was discouraged from learning to play it since the kora has been traditionally the province of men. Instead, Camara played guitar and sang songs for healing ceremonies led by her grandmother.

At the age of 22, she was finally accepted by a teacher of kora after moving to M’bour, a city near Dakar, Senegal’s capital. Later she studied at the Conservatoire in Dakar and the Conservatoire de St Denis, self-funding her education by supporting herself as a sound engineer.

Camara continues to work on radio and TV programmes as a performer and social commentator, addressing gender equality, environmental issues and other contemporary topics in her work. Singing in a variety of different regional languages and challenging the conventions of kora music, her work aims to connect a wide cultural spectrum of West Africans, diasporic West Africans in the Francophone world, and global audiences abroad.

Jury citation

"For joyously elevating the spirit of the feminine in Senegalese music through your mastery of the kora and evocative songwriting."