The Niger River ( /ˈnaɪdʒər/ NY-jər) is the principal river of western Africa, extending about 4,180 km (2,600 mi). Its drainage basin is 2,117,700 km² (817,600 sq mi) in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in southeastern Guinea. It runs in a crescent through Mali, Niger, on the border with Benin and then through Nigeria, discharging through a massive delta, known as the Niger Delta or the Oil Rivers, into the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean. The Niger is the third-longest river in Africa, exceeded only by the Nile and the Congo River (also known as the Zaïre River). Its main tributary is the Benue River.

The Niger is called Jeliba or Joliba "great river" in Manding; Orimiri or Orimili "great water" in Igbo; Egerew n-Igerewen "river of rivers" in Tuareg; Isa Ber "big river" in Songhay; Kwara in Hausa; and Oya in Yoruba. The origin of the name Niger, which originally applied only to the middle reaches of the river, is uncertain. The likeliest possibility is an alteration, by influence of Latin niger "black", of the Tuareg name egerew n-igerewen, which is used along the middle reaches of the river around Timbuktu. As Timbuktu was the southern end of the principal Trans-Saharan trade route to the western Mediterranean, it was the source of most European knowledge of the region.

Niger (French pronunciation: [niʒɛʁ], but occasionally pronounced as /niːˈʒɛər/ or ⁱ/ˈnaɪdʒər/), officially the Republic of Niger, is a landlocked country in Western Africa, named after the Niger River. It borders Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, Algeria and Libya to the north and Chad to the east. Niger covers a land area of almost 1,270,000 km², making it the largest nation in West Africa, with over 80 percent of its land area covered by the Sahara desert. The country's predominantly Islamic population of just above 15,000,000 is mostly clustered in the far south and west of the nation. The capital city is Niamey, located in the far southwest corner of Niger.

Niger is a developing country, and consistently ranks as one of the lowest ranks of the United Nations' Human Development Index (HDI), 186th of 187 countries in 2011. Much of the non-desert portions of the country are threatened by periodic drought and desertification. The economy is concentrated around subsistence and some export agriculture clustered in the more fertile south, and the export of raw materials, especially uranium ore. Niger remains handicapped by its landlocked position, desert terrain, poor education and poverty of its people, lack of infrastructure, poor health care, and environmental degradation.

Martha Wainwright (born May 8, 1976) is a Canadian-American folk-rock singer-songwriter. She is the daughter of American folk singer and actor Loudon Wainwright III and Canadian folk singer-songwriter Kate McGarrigle. She was raised in a musical family along with her older brother, Rufus Wainwright, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Wainwright released an independent cassette, Ground Floor, in 1997. The following year, her song "Year of the Dragon" appeared on The McGarrigle Hour, an album released by Kate and Anna McGarrigle. Shortly after this recording, Martha began singing backup vocals for her brother, and released the six-song EP Martha Wainwright in 1999.

Following her drama classes at Montreal's Concordia University, she moved to New York City, where she established herself as singer and songwriter. She made contacts within the industry, one of whom was producer Brad Albetta, who worked with Wainwright to produce her self-titled debut album, Martha Wainwright (released April 12, 2005, by MapleMusic Recordings).