Fally Ipupa is a superstar of African music. Hailing from the Democratic Republic of Congo, his songs have had over a billion YouTube views and Forbes magazine has listed him as one of the continent’s top 20 musicians, along with Wizkid and Burna Boy. The 45-year-old is a master of Congolese rumba, a mesmerising form of traditional dance music based around melodic and repetitive guitar motifs with a large dollop of Cuban swagger. Here, in front of almost 10,000 fans at Wembley Arena, he was joined by close to 30 musicians, dancers and backing singers as he wove a mellifluous sonic tapestry that was impossible not to dance to.
A friend who lived in Kinshasa until recently describes Ipupa as the Congolese equivalent of Ed Sheeran – a wildly popular and prolific household name. French President Emmanuel Macron attended an Ipupa concert in the DRC capital earlier this year and was pictured partying in the streets, beer in hand, with the singer afterwards. While there was no sign of Rishi Sunak at this London show – perhaps he prefers the music of neighbouring Rwanda – there was a huge sense of occasion. Ipupa took to the stage amid pyro explosions and jets of stream, wearing shades, a fine abundance of jewellery and a full-length shimmering black and silver trench coat with a kilt underneath, one of four costumes he donned throughout the night. He was greeted by a sea of DRC flags; it was like the Last Night of the Proms, Kinshasa-style.
Ipupa – full name Fally Ipupa N’simba – doesn’t do things by half. Recent album Formule 7 clocked in at a mammoth three hours and 37 minutes, while 2018’s Control lasted a comparatively svelte three hours and 31 minutes. And so we were treated to 32 songs, some of them medleys. The fact they were sung almost wholly in French didn’t matter at all: the crowd were word-perfect throughout. The music was entirely live – no earth-shaking electronic bass or synthetic beats. In fact, despite the party atmosphere and inarguable volume, the sound was wonderfully delicate and rich. Six members of Ipupa’s 12-piece band were guitarists, and three of them acoustic, giving this dextrous music a satisfying depth. This was particularly effective on slower songs like Mal Accompangé and Sweet Life, in which Ipupa’s honeyed tenor was lent ballast by half a dozen harmonising backing singers. Tracks like Lady D saw the music move into soukous territory – a faster rumba variant popularised by fellow countryman Kanda Bongo Man.
We’ll be hearing more of Ipupa in the coming year, I imagine. He has recently recorded a collaboration with British actor Idris Elba (as yet unreleased) and I gather shows at larger UK venues are planned. If, like me, you believe that music’s function is to transport, to thrill and to move you – physically as well as emotionally – then Ipupa ticked all the boxes. Talk about a gleeful antidote to the cold December night outside.
