Mounira Mitchala is singer and song-writer from Chad. Mounira Mitchala ’s watchwords were now determination and pleasure. In spring 2011, she recorded her second album in Paris: Chili Houritki (Take Your Independence).
Backed by the musicians who usually appear with her on stage and bassist Guy N’Sangué, the young woman’s powerful voice and rough, sensual timbre weave their spell around songs based on everyday life in Chad. In that part of the Sahel, which straddles sub-Saharan Africa and the Arab world, issues of drought, desertification, access to water and malnutrition are compounded by poor governance and endemic corruption. Although she is not a protest singer as such, Mounira observes and condemns. The injustices women are subjected to are among her main concerns. Outraged and determined to fight on, she brings the same talent and conviction to her struggle for dignity as her Malian sister Oumou Sangaré.
Although based on the beats and colours of traditional genres, her melodies are firmly contemporary. In ballads brimming with emotion, Mounira’s voice grows gentler and smoother. Camel Zekri’s arrangements, which focus on acoustic sounds, perfectly showcase this remarkable timbre, this desert folk blues so beautifully expressed by Mounira Mitchala. Here is the song “Choukrane”
World Music - the Music Journey 