Look up petite in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Petit is the French adjective (qualifier) for "small", or "little", in the masculine form. In the feminine form, it is petite. It may also refer to any of the following:

• Petit's triangle (inferior lumbar triangle), . See Petit's hernia
• Petit Jean State Park
• Petit juror
• Petite sizes in women's clothing
• Petite bourgeoisie in sociology
• Petit (EP), a 1995 EP by Japanese singer-songwriter Ua
• Petit (crater), a small, bowl-shaped lunar crater on Mare Spumans

People[link]

• A French surname
  • Pierre Petit (1832–1909), French photographer
  • Pierre Petit (scholar) (1617–1687), French scholar, medical writer, and poet
  • Jean-Pierre Petit, a French scientist
  • François Pourfour du Petit (1664–1741), French anatomist
  • Alexis Thérèse Petit (1791–1820), French physicist
  • Philippe Petit (born 1949), French acrobat
  • Roland Petit (1924–2011), French choreographer and dancer
• The surname for a prominent Parsi family of India, whose members include:
  • Dinshaw Maneckji Petit, Bt. (1823–1901), Indian industrialist
  • His granddaughter Rattanbai Petit (1900–1929), wife of Jinnah, founder of Pakistan
• The Petit Family, 2007 Connecticut home invasion and murder victims

Footballers[link]

• Emmanuel Petit (born 1970), former French midfielder, who played for France, Monaco, Arsenal, Barcelona and Chelsea
• Petit (Portuguese footballer) (born 1976), Portuguese midfielder
• Jean Petit (born 1949), former French football midfielder
• Paulinho Le Petit (born 1989), Brazilian footballer
• Petit Sory (born 1945), former Guinean football player
• René Petit (1899–1989), Franco-Spanish engineer and a footballer in his youth

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

This page or section lists people with the surname Petit. If an internal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that link by adding the person's given name(s) to the link.

Philippe Petit
Petit at the 81st Academy Awards in February 2009
Born	(1949-08-13) 13 August 1949 (age 62) Nemours, Seine-et-Marne, France
Occupation	High-wire artist

Philippe Petit (French pronunciation: [filip pəti]; born 13 August 1949) is a French high-wire artist who gained fame for his high-wire walk between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, New York, on 7 August 1974.^[1] For his feat (that he referred to as "le coup"^[2]), he used a 450-pound (200-kilogram) cable and a custom-made 26-foot (8-metre) long, 55-pound (25-kilogram) balancing pole.

Early life[link]

Petit was born in Nemours, Seine-et-Marne, France; his father, Edmond Petit, was an author and a former Army pilot. At an early age he discovered magic and juggling. At 16, he took his first steps on the wire. Petit learned everything by himself as he was being expelled from five different schools. "Within one year," he told a reporter, "I taught myself to do all the things you could do on a wire. I learned the backward somersault, the front somersault, the unicycle, the bicycle, the chair on the wire, jumping through hoops. But I thought, 'What is the big deal here? It looks almost ugly.' So I started to discard those tricks and to reinvent my art."^[3] He also became adept at equestrianism, fencing, carpentry, rock-climbing and the art of bullfighting. Spurning circuses and their formulaic performances, on the sidewalks of Paris he created his street persona. In the early 1970s, he frequently juggled and worked on a slack rope in New York City's Washington Square Park.

Beginning in the 1970s, Petit began eyeing world-famous structures as stages for high-wire walks, which he executed as a combination of circus act and public performance. He performed his first such walk between the towers of the Notre Dame de Paris. In 1973, he walked a wire rigged between the two north pylons of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, in Sydney, Australia.^[4]

World Trade Center walk[link]

Petit's most famous work was his performance which he executed at the World Trade Center (Twin Towers) in Manhattan.

Planning[link]

He was first inspired to attempt what he called his "coup" on the Twin Towers while he sat in his dentist's office in Paris in 1968. In a magazine, he came upon an article about the yet-to-be constructed buildings, along with an illustration of the model. He became obsessed with the towers, collecting articles on them whenever possible.

The "artistic crime of the century" took six years of planning, during which Petit learned everything he could about the buildings, taking into account such problems as the swaying of the towers because of wind, and how to rig the steel cable across the 200 ft (61 m) gap between the towers (at a height of 1,368 ft (417 m)). He traveled to New York on several occasions to make first-hand observations. Since the towers were still under construction, Petit and New York-based photographer Jim Moore went up in a helicopter to make aerial photographs of the trade center.^[2] His friend Francis Brunn, the German juggler, provided financial support for the attempt and its planning.^[5]

Petit snuck into the towers several times, hiding on the roof and other areas in the unfinished towers, in order to get a sense of what type of security measures were in place. Using his own observations and Moore's photographs, Petit was able to make a scale model of the towers to help him design the rigging he needed to prepare for the wirewalk. He made fake identification cards for himself and his collaborators (claiming that they were contractors who were installing an electrified fence on the roof) to gain access to the towers. Prior to this, to make it easier to get into the buildings, Petit carefully observed the clothes worn by construction workers and the kinds of tools they carried. He also took note of the clothing of office workers so that he could blend in with them when he tried to enter the buildings. He observed what time the workers arrived and left, so he could determine when he would have roof access. As the target date of his "coup" approached, he claimed to be a journalist with a French architecture magazine so that he could gain permission to interview the workers on the roof. The Port Authority allowed Petit to conduct the interviews, which he used as a pretext to make more observations. He was once caught by a police officer on the roof, and his hopes to do the high-wire walk were dampened, but he eventually regained the confidence to proceed.

On the night of Tuesday, 6 August 1974, Petit and his crew were able to ride in a freight elevator to the 104th floor with their equipment, and to store this equipment just nineteen steps from the roof. In order to pass the cable across the void, Petit and his crew had settled on using a bow and arrow. They first shot across a fishing line, and then passed larger and larger ropes across the space between the towers until they were able to pass the 450-pound steel cable across. Two cavalettis (guy lines) anchored to other points on the roof were used to stabilize the cable and keep the swaying of the wire to a minimum.^[2]

Walking[link]

On Wednesday, 7 August 1974, shortly after 7:15 a.m., Petit stepped off the South Tower and onto his 3/4" 6×19 IWRC (independent wire rope core^[6]) steel cable. He walked the wire for 45 minutes, making eight crossings between the towers, a quarter of a mile above the sidewalks of Manhattan. In addition to walking, he sat on the wire, gave knee salutes and, while lying on the wire, spoke with a gull circling above his head.

As soon as Petit was observed by witnesses on the ground, the Port Authority Police Department dispatched officers to take him into custody. One of the officers, Sgt. Charles Daniels, later reported his experience:

I observed the tightrope 'dancer'—because you couldn't call him a 'walker'—approximately halfway between the two towers. And upon seeing us he started to smile and laugh and he started going into a dancing routine on the high wire....And when he got to the building we asked him to get off the high wire but instead he turned around and ran back out into the middle....He was bouncing up and down. His feet were actually leaving the wire and then he would resettle back on the wire again....Unbelievable really....Everybody was spellbound in the watching of it.^[7]

Petit was warned by his friend on the South Tower that a police helicopter would come to pick him off the wire unless he got off. Rain had begun to fall, and Petit decided he had taken enough risks, so he decided to give himself up to the police waiting for him on the South Tower. He was arrested once he stepped off the wire. Provoked by his taunting behaviour while on the wire, police handcuffed him behind his back and roughly pushed him down a flight of stairs. This he later described as the most dangerous part of the stunt.^[8]

His high-wire performance made headlines around the world. When asked why he did the stunt, Petit would say, "When I see three oranges, I juggle; when I see two towers, I walk."

Although movie cameras were on the roof during the walk, the person who was supposed to film the walk did not do so, apparently due to exhaustion from pulling the heavy cable tight after some of it had fallen, creating slack while the rigging was being set up.^[9]

Aftermath[link]

The extensive news coverage and public appreciation of Petit's high-wire walk resulted in all formal charges relating to his walk being dropped^[10] in exchange for what was supposed to be a free show of juggling for a few children in Central Park. Instead, he transformed it into another high-wire walk, in the Park above Belvedere Lake (which has now become Turtle Pond). Petit was also presented with a lifetime pass to the Twin Towers' Observation Deck by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. He autographed a steel beam close to the point where he began his walk.

Petit's high-wire walk is credited with bringing the then rather unpopular Twin Towers much needed attention and even affection.^[11][12] Up to that point, critics such as historian Lewis Mumford had regarded them as ugly and utilitarian. The landlords were having trouble renting out all of their office space.^[11]

Sandi Sissel filmed the original act and released it as the cinema verité documentary, High Wire (1984), with music derived from Philip Glass's Glassworks.

The documentary film Man on Wire by UK director James Marsh, about Petit's 1974 WTC performance, won both the World Cinema Jury and Audience awards at the Sundance Film Festival 2008. The film also won awards at the 2008 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham, North Carolina, and won the Academy Award for Best Documentary. Petit was on stage to help accept the award, making a coin vanish in his hands while thanking the Academy "for believing in magic" and then balanced the Oscar by its head on his chin to cheers from the audience.^[13]

Later life[link]

Petit has made dozens of public high-wire performances in his career; in 1986 he re-enacted the crossing of the Niagara River by Blondin for an Imax film. In 1989, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution, mayor Jacques Chirac invited him to walk a wire strung from the ground, at the Place du Trocadéro, to the second level of the Eiffel Tower.

Petit briefly headlined with the Ringling Brothers' Circus, but circus life did not agree with him. It was during his stint with the circus that he suffered his only fall, from 45 feet (14 m) during a practice walk, breaking several ribs. He says he has never fallen during a performance. "If I had, I wouldn't be here."^[14]

Petit regularly gives lectures and workshops internationally on a variety of topics and subjects. He single-handedly built a barn in the Catskill Mountains using the methods and tools of the 18th-century timber framers;^{[citation needed]} and currently,^[when?] he is working on his eighth book, A Square Peg.

Among his friends who have associated themselves with some of his projects are such diverse artists as: Mikhail Baryshnikov, Werner Herzog, Annie Leibovitz, Milos Forman, Volker Schlöndorff, Twyla Tharp, Peter Beard, Marcel Marceau, Paul Auster, Paul Winter, Debra Winger, Robin Williams and Sting.^{[citation needed]} Director James Signorelli assisted with the creation of the book To Reach the Clouds.^[15]

Petit has been presented with the James Park Morton Interfaith Award, the Streb Action Maverick Award, The Byrdcliff Award, is the recipient of the New York Historical Society Award and was made Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture. Petit shares his time between New York City where he is an artist in residence at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine and a hideaway in the Catskills.

Major high-wire performances[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Philippe Petit, Trois Coups, (Paris: Herscher, 1983). ISBN 2-7335-0062-7
• Philippe Petit, Two towers, I walk, (New York: Reader's Digest, 1975), ASIN B00072LQRM.
• Philippe Petit, On The High Wire, Preface by Marcel Marceau, Postface by Werner Herzog (New York: Random House, 1985). ISBN 0-394-71573-X.
• Philippe Petit, Funambule, (Paris: Albin Michel, 1991) ISBN 978-2-226-04123-4
• Philippe Petit, Traité du funambulisme, Preface by Paul Auster, (Arles: Actus Sud, 1997), ISBN 2-226-04123-0, (in French / en français).
• Philippe Petit, Über Mir Der Offene Himmel, (Stuttgart: Urachhaus, 1998) ISBN 978-3-8251-7209-1
• Philippe Petit, Trattato di Funambolismo, (Milano: Ponte Alle Grazie, 1999) ISBN 88-7928-450-9
• Philippe Petit, To Reach The Clouds: My High Wire Walk Between The Twin Towers, (New York, North Point Press, 2002). ASIN B000UDX0JA, ISBN 0-86547-651-9
• Philippe Petit, L'Art du Pickpocket, (Arles: Actes Sud, 2006) ISBN 2-7427-6106-3
• Philippe Petit, Alcanzar las nubes, (Alpha Decay, Barcelona, 2007) ISBN 978-84-934868-9-1
• Philippe Petit, Man on Wire, (Skyhorse Publishing, New York, 2008) ISBN 978-1-60239-332-5

Filmography[link]

Tribute[link]

• The song "Man On Wire" by the band '27' is a tribute to Philippe Petit.^[18]
• The song "Sleepwalking" by Danish composer Ste van Holm is a tribute to the World Trade Center walk.^[19]
• The Low Anthem's song "Boeing 737", from their 2011 album Smart Flesh contains a reference to Petit's World Trade Center walk.^[20]
• American rock band Incubus used a photo of Petit as the cover art for their 2011 release If Not Now, When?
• Colum McCann's National Book Award-winning novel Let the Great World Spin has Petit's Twin Towers walk as its starting point and its centrepiece.
• "Funambulist" by American metal band Cormorant is about his walk between the Twin Towers^[21] .

References[link]

This article uses bare URLs for citations. Please consider adding full citations so that the article remains verifiable. Several templates and the Reflinks tool are available to assist in formatting. (Reflinks documentation) (May 2011)

Further reading[link]

• Mordicai Gerstein, The Man Who Walked Between the Towers (Roaring Brook Press, 2003) ISBN 978-0-7613-1791-3
• David Chelsea, 9-11: Artists Respond feature entitled "He Walks on Air 110 Stories High" (DC Comics, 2002) ISBN 978-1-56389-881-5
• Ralph Keyes, Chancing It: Why We Take Risks (Little, Brown & Company, 1985) ISBN 0-316-49132-2
• Angus K. Gillespie, Twin Towers: the Life of New York City's World Trade Center (Rutgers University Press, 1999) ISBN 978-0-8135-2742-0
• James Glanz and Eric Lipton, City in the Sky (New York: Times Book, 2003) ISBN 0-8050-7691-3
• Colum McCann, Let the Great World Spin (New York: Random House, 2009) ISBN 978-0-8129-7399-0

Articles and Interviews[link]

• Hager, Emily (12 August 2010). "Learning to Walk in the Slippers of a High-Wire Artist". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/13/nyregion/13petit.html. Retrieved 12 August 2010. 
• Green, Penelope (21 September 2006). "A High-Wire Master Touches Down". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/garden/21petit.html?pagewanted=1&sq. Retrieved 18 April 2008. 
• Higginbotham, Adam (19 January 2003). "On top of the world". London: The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2003/jan/19/features.magazine7. 
• Lazarovic, Sarah (9 January 2002). "The Daredevil in the Clouds". The National Post. http://www.longliveirony.com/Petit.htm. 
• Tomkins, Calvin (5 April 1999). "Onward and Upward with the Arts, "The Man Who Walk on Air"". The New Yorker. http://wwww.newyorker.com/archive/1999/04/05/1999_04_05_080_TNY_LIBRY_000017914#ixzz12k4nlilD. 
• Mason, Anthony (3 February 2009). "The Great Feat Of Philippe Petit, CBS Evening News: Talking With The Man Who Walked The Twin Towers". CBS. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/02/03/eveningnews/main4773768.shtml. 
• Colbert, Stephen (27 January 2009). "Philippe Petit". Comedy Central. http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/217060/january-27-2009/philippe-petit. 
• Langston, Bonnie (24 April 2009). "Still Working the Wire". Daily Freeman. http://www.dailyfreeman.com/articles/2009/04/24/life/doc49f1349e71724682655103.txt. 
• Tucker, Reed (13 April 2008). "The Man Who Walked Between the Twin Towers Stars in a New Documentary on his High-Wire Act". New York Post. http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/item_4JsbAPrBYjHJm2oBZfbjlN. 
• Heller, Sabine (10 May 2010). "Philippe Petit, Man On Wire: "I'm Afraid of Animals With Too Many Legs or No Legs at All"". Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sabine-heller/philippe-petit-man-on-wir_b_570720.html. 
• Grace, Lichtenstein (8 August 1974). "Stuntman, Eluding Guards, Walks a Tightrope Between Trade Center Towers". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1974/08/08/nyregion/08WTC.htm. 
• "Not My Job: Philippe Petit". NPR. 7 February 2009. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100366857. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Philippe Petit

• MSA - The Man Who Walked Between The Towers. Co-produced by Michael Sporn Animation and Weston Woods Studios
• Philippe Petit Signature visible in the 1980s
• photos of Philippe Petit crossing the Twin Towers along with others

Petit-Pays (born Adolphe Claude Moundi in Douala, Cameroon in 1969^[1]) is a Cameroonian musician. By 1996 he had sold over 50,000 cassettes. He is also known as OMEGA, Rabba Rabbi, Turbo and famously Avocat defenseur des femmes (advocate for women). He is one of the most celebrated Cameroonian musicians of the late 1980s and 1990s. His music has evolved over the years adapting to contemporary African genres. He mixes native Cameroonian makossa with soukous, zouk, and salsa, leading to the portmanteau label of makozouk for some of his music.^[2] He launched his first album Haoussa in 1987, after working with makossa producers. In Haoussa, he says his father is Haoussa and mother is Douala.

He has a band, known as Petit Pays et Les Sans Visa, which has seen several band members moving on to start their own solo careers over the 1990s and 2000s (decade). It includes artists like Jojo Moussio Samy Diko, Kaissa Pakito, Samantha Fok, Guy Manu, Njohreur, Xavier Lagaf and lots of other successful Makossa musicians. It is rumored that he gave the name Sans Visa to his band because he was deported from France for not having a visa.

He is the self crowned king of Makossa. In one of his songs, "Le Jour de ma Mort" (The Day I Die) from the album Class FM and other songs, he compares himself to Fela Kuti of Nigeria, Alpha Blondy of Côte d'Ivoire, Salif Keita of Mali and Youssou N'dour of Senegal. He always gives credit to legends like Francis Bebey, Eboa Lotin and Manu Dibango. He makes music with Pro Tools

He is known for his sometimes offensive dressing, controversial album covers and lyrics. He caused a stir in the mid-1990s ('94?) when he posed naked for his album cover King of Makossa (Love Class FM).

Influences[link]

His influences are his wife.

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Mbaku, John Mukum (2005). Culture and Customs of Cameroon. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press.
• West, Ben (2004). Cameroon: The Bradt Travel Guide. Guilford, Connecticut: The Globe Pequot Press Inc.
• Fritzgerald Enow (2007). Makossa legends. Kansas city, Missouri:
• http://crawfurd.dk/africa/petitpays.htm

External links[link]

• http://petitpays1.com/
• Camerounlink.net (French)

This article on an African musician is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

This Cameroonian biographical article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (June 2010)

Papa Wemba
Papa Wemba
Background information
Born	1949
Origin	Lubefu, Sankuru Province, DR Congo
Genres	Soukous

Papa Wemba was born Jules Shungu Wembadio Pene Kikumba in 1949 in Lubefu (Sankuru District, DR Congo). He is a Congolese rumba (later known as soukous) musician, one of Africa's most popular musicians, and prominent in World music.

Musical history[link]

Zaiko Langa Langa[link]

Papa Wemba was one of the very musicians to join the influential Soukous band, Zaiko Langa Langa when it was created in December 1969^[1] in Kinshasa along with such well known Congolese musicians as Nyoka Longo Jossart, Manuaku Pepe Felly, Evoloko Lay Lay, Bimi Ombale, Teddy Sukami, Zamuangana Enock, Mavuela Simeon, and others.

In a Congolese musical world dominated at the time by Franco Luambo and his remarkable band TPOK Jazz, Tabu Ley Rochereau's Afrisa, and by then-new musical groups like Les Grands Maquisards, Le Trio Madjesi, and even younger bands like Bella-Bella, Thu Zaina and Empire Bakuba, the young and talented Papa Wemba (then known as Jules Presley Shungu Wembadio), was one of the driving forces that by 1973 made Zaiko Langa Langa one of the most-performing dominant Congolese groups, featuring such popular numbers as "Chouchouna" (Papa Wemba), "Eluzam" and " Mbeya Mbeya" (Evoloko Lay Lay), "BP ya Munu" (Efonge Gina), "Mwana Wabi" and "Mizou" (Bimi Ombale) and "Zania" (Mavuela Somo).

Isifi[link]

In December 1974, at the pinnacle of their fame (and just a month after the Rumble in the Jungle between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in Kinshasa), Shungu Wembadio (Papa Wemba), along with Evoloko Lay Lay, Mavuela Somo and Bozi Boziana (who'd joined Zaiko Langa Langa a year earlier), left Zaiko Langa Langa to establish their own musical ensemble Isifi Lokole, ISIFI being an acronym for "Institut du Savoir Ideologique pour la Formation des Idoles." Yet of course, not everything that Wemba claims in earnest can be taken as gospel. In July 1975, Shungu Wembadio officially adopted the soon-to-be-well-known worldwide artist name Papa Wemba, the addition of "Papa" (father) an allusion to what were in fact rather awesome family responsibilities as the first son in a family where both father and mother (Wemba's parents) had been deceased since the 1960s.

The "feux d'artifice" (fireworks) that was Isifi Lokole would only last a year, with the single "Amazone" (Papa Wemba) as its biggest commercial "hit" record. In November 1975, Papa Wemba, Mavuela Somo and Bozi Boziana abandoned Evoloko Lay Lay and Isifi Lokole to create the group Yoka Lokole (also known as The Kinshasa's Wa Fania All-Stars, or Lokole Isifi, or simply Isifi), along with Mbuta Mashakado, another Zaiko Langa Langa 'transfusion.' Yoka Lokole enjoyed slightly less popular success than the original Isifi Lokole, but for a time still managed to remain at the top the African pop music wave with hit songs like "Matembele Bangui", "Lisuma ya Zazu" (Papa Wemba), "Mavuela Sala Keba", and "Bana Kin" (Mavuela Somo).

Like Isifi Lokole, the electronic-instrument driven Yoka Lokole (or The Kinshasa All-Stars) would not last much longer than a year, given the merger of so many big-name talents in the band's lineup. After a year of modest success, controversies within Yoka Lokole over money and prestige (complicated by Wemba's arrest and brief incarceration in Kinshasa Central prison in December 1976 for the 'crime' of being suspected of having had physical intimacy with an influential army general's daughter) would lead Papa Wemba, then feeling diminished by peers and neglected by the public, to form his own group Viva la Musica in February 1977 after a very brief return to Isifi Lokole and Stukas Boys of Lita Bembo where he played for a few weeks as a guest.

Viva la Musica[link]

At his home in the Matonge neighborhood of Kinshasa, Papa Wemba structured Viva la Musica around young talented artists like singers Kisangani Esperant, Jadot le Cambodgien, Pepe Bipoli and Petit Aziza, guitarists Rigo Star, Syriana, and Bongo Wende. A young man of the name of Antoine Agbepa (currently known as Koffi Olomide), whose friend were calling "Cheri O", was the unknown writer of most of the hit songs of the group. The group had nearly instantaneous success, with hit songs like "Mere Superieure," "Mabele Mokonzi", "Bokulaka," "Princesse ya Sinza," and others.

During the height of his success in 1977, Papa Wemba's family home, in Kanda-Kanda street, which had become a popular, some even said hallowed/special place for Matonge youths to gather "à la mode" (i.e., to be cool) was named the "Village Molokai," and Wemba assumed the exalted moniker "Chef Coutumier" (Chief) of the Village of Molokai. That village in the heart of Matonge, included the following streets, which firsts letters were used to form the acronym: M-O-LO-KA-I: Masimanimba-Oshwe-LOkolama-KAnda-kanda-Inzia.

In those days people referred to Papa Wemba as the "chief from the heartland (village)" to differentiate him from Kinshasa-born musical bigshots Mavuela Somo and Mashakado. However years later Mavuela would say that their difficulties only simply amounted to trivial foolishness over money, ambition and fame between some very-young people (that at the time they all were).

Since 1977, Viva la Musica has seen both the 'defections' of musicians every two or three years and the entrée and emergence of other new talents. Fafa de Molokai, Debs Debaba, King Kester Emeneya (1977–1982), Koffi Olomide, as a singer, (1978–1979), Djuna Djanana (1978–1981), Dindo Yogo (1979–1981), Maray-Maray (1980–1984), Lidjo Kwempa (1982–2001), Reddy Amissi (1982–2001), Stino Mubi (1983–2001) are among the currently well-known Congolese musicians who have served at one time or another with Viva la Musica. An old Kinshasa anecdote says that a college student then-named Antoine Agbepa Koffi was such an impressive songwriter that one day in 1977 Papa Wemba exhorted, "Ooh! l'homme idee" (Oh! the idea-man!) thereby on-the-spot renaming the impressive young singer-songwriter Koffi Olomide - and the name stuck...

After the wave of African emigration to Europe in the 1990s, Wemba maintained one group in Kinshasa (called at times "Nouvelle Ecriture," "Nouvel Ecrita," and now again "Viva la Musica") and another one in Paris ("Nouvelle Generation," "La Cour des Grands," and now "Viva Tendance"). He has also consistently maintained a very high profile in World Music with such great hits as "L'Esclave" (1986), "Le Voyageur, Maria Valencia" (1992), "Foridoles, Dixieme Commandement" (1994), "Emotion" (1995), "Pole Position" (1996), "M’Zée Fula-Ngenge" (1999), "Bakala dia Kuba" (2001), and "Somo Trop" (2003).

Papa Wemba is also known as an actor. In 1987, he played the male lead role in the successful Zairean (Congolese) film La Vie est Belle by Belgian director Benoît Lamy and Congolese producer-director Ngangura Mweze.

High and low times[link]

On 18 February 2003, suspected of being involved in a network that has allegedly smuggled hundreds of illegal immigrants from the Democratic Republic of Congo (former Zaire) into Europe, Papa Wemba was arrested at his home in Paris.

Papa Wemba was eventually found guilty at some level in June 2003 and spent three and a half months in prison, an experience which, on his release after a €30,000 bail was posted, he declared had had a profound psychological effect on him. The singer claimed to have undergone a spiritual conversion in jail and even recounted this episode on his new album, "Somo trop" (released in October 2003). On the song "Numéro d'écrou", Papa Wemba recalled the day "God" paid a visit to his cell.

Cross-cultural influence[link]

In 1979, Papa Wemba became the leader of the Sapeur (Société des Ambianceurs et des Personnes d'Élégance or SAPE) which he promoted as a youth cult.^[2] Wemba said:

The Sapeur cult promoted high standards of personal cleanliness, hygiene and smart dress, to a whole generation of youth across Zaire. When I say well groomed, well shaven, well perfumed, it's a propriety that I am insisting on among the young. I don't care about their education, since education always comes first of all from the family.

Recently, Priyan Weerappuli, the leader of the Sri Lankan group Pahan Silu; referred to Wemba as being among his greatest musical influences.

Discography[link]

• Pauline (1970, Zaiko Langa Langa)
• L'Amoureux Decu (1972, Zaiko Langa Langa)
• Mete la Verite, Chouchouna (1973, Zaiko Langa Langa)
• Liwa ya Somo (1973–1974, Zaiko Langa Langa)
• Ainsi Va La Vie, Amazone (1975, Isifi Lokole)
• Matembele Bangi, Lisuma ya Zazu (1976, Yoka Lokole)
• Mere Superieure, Bokulaka, Mabele Mokonzi, Muana Molokai (1977)
• Princesse ya Senza, Fleur Betoko, Zonga-Zonga (1978)
• Anibo, Ata Nkale (1979)
• Levre Rose (1979, with Rochereau & Afrisa)
• Telegramme (1979, with Simaro Massiya & OK. Jazz)
• Analengo (1980), Amena (1980, duo with Pepe Kalle)
• Santa, Matebu (1980, first full album in Paris)
• Melina La Parisienne, Ufukutano (1981)
• Evenement, Rendre A Caesar (1982)
• Eliana, Bukavu Dawa (1983)
• Proclamation (1984, in Paris with Ngashie Niarchos)
• Destin ya Moto (1985)
• L'esclave, Papa Wemba – Au Japon (live) (1986)
• Papa Wemba Ekumani (1987)
• M'fono Yami (1989)
• Biloko ya Moto-Adidas Kiesse (1991)
• Le Voyageur (1992)
• Foridoles (1994)
• Emotion (1995)
• Pôle Position (1996)
• Wake-Up (1996, duo with Koffi Olomide)
• Nouvelle Ecriture (1997)
• Molokaï (1998)
• Nouvelle Ecriture dans L (1998)
• M’Zée Fula-Ngenge (1999)
• Muana Matebu(1999)
• A La Une (2000)
• Zea (2001)
• Bakala Dia Kuba (2001)
• Somo Trop (2003)
• Muana Molokaï (2004)
• Ba Zonkion (2005)
• Cheeky Summer time - Collab with Father J (2004)
• Attention L'artiste (2006)
• Notre Père Rumba (2010)

Filmography[link]

• Les Habits neufs du gouverneur (The Governor's New Clothes) (2004)
• Combat de fauves (1997) - The African
• La Vie est Belle (Life Is Beautiful) (1987) - Kourou

References[link]

External links[link]

• Biography of Papa Wemba