Cheikh Lô is a Senegalese guitarist, drummer, and singer. He has played concerts worldwide combining reggae, funk and Senegalese rhythmic sounds. He has been described as an ambassador for Senegalese music. He is known in Senegal for being outspoken, including on social justice. Cheikh Lo is a Muslim and member of the Baye Fall brotherhood, a part of the larger brotherhood Mouride who wear dreadlocks and are often incorrectly mistaken as Rastafarian.

Born in 1955 in the town of Bobo Dioulasso in Burkina Faso, West Africa. In 1976, he joined Orchestre Volta Jazz, a Bobo variety band that played Cuban and Congolese pop songs, as well as traditional Burkinabé music. Lô moved to Senegal in 1978, performing in several mbalax outfits. By then, the Zairean sound was in full flower, Camerounian makossa was coming on strong, and reggae had entered the mix, and Lô absorbed all of these various musical genres. In 1985, he was playing guitar with numerous Côte d'Ivoire and French musicians, which led him to record material in Paris, France, in 1987. After his band dissolved, Lô remained in Paris as a session musician, developing his own sound, described as a mix of mbalax, reggae and soukous influences. In 1990 he recorded his first cassette in Dakar. Youssou N'Dour produced his debut album, Ne La Thiass in 1995. In 2000, Lô sang alongside Ibrahim Ferrer on "Choco's Guajira", from Cuban pianist Rubén González's album Chanchullo. In 2002, he appeared on two tracks of the Red Hot Organization's tribute album to Fela Kuti, Red Hot and Riot. He collaborated with Les Nubians and Manu Dibango on one of the tracks, "Shakara / Lady (Part Two)."

References

https://www.unhcr.org/ibelong/cheikh-lo/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheikh_L%C3%B4

https://www.discogs.com/artist/99443-Cheikh-L%C3%B4

https://cheikhlomusic.com/