Coco Mbassi

Coco Mbassi was born in Paris and originates from Cameroon. Her music is a blend of African roots, classical music, jazz and gospel, with the feel of acoustic soul. A winner of several music awards including the Radio France Internationale Découvertes Contest in 1996, the German World Music CD Critics Award in 2001, she was one of the two finalists for the BBC World Music Awards in 2002. She toured internationally with her band for over two decades. Highlights include Live 8 at the Eden Project (invited by Peter Gabriel), Louisiana International Festival, Jazz Sous Les Pommiers, Festival d’Été in Montréal, Nuits d’Afrique in Québec, Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin, Afroprojekt in Würzburg, and Womad festivals across Europe, Asia and Australia. Her musical foundations were laid early. Coco began singing as an infant and spent her early years in Cameroon, where a broad range of musical genres were appreciated. She would wake up to Haendel’s Messiah on Sunday mornings, dance to the Jackson Five and the latest Makossa hits, and during holidays in her father’s village, Dibombari, she would sing and dance to traditional Ambass Bey songs. By the age of seven, she was winning every singing contest she entered. She returned to Paris as a teenager, completed secondary school, then studied at university, and began her career as a backing vocalist on stage and in studio sessions for World Music, French and international pop artists. She later joined several classical, gospel, pop and contemporary projects, and was one of the lead singers in Cirque du Soleil’s show Totem for a short time. Her discography includes Sepia (2001), Sisea (2003), Coco Mbassi Tour (live DVD, 2005), Jóa (2014), Ashuka Series Vol. 1 (2020, African polyphony), a single, Palaba (2021), and her EP ELA in 2023. A multidisciplinary artist, Coco enrolled in Shonda Rhimes’ TV scriptwriting course in 2017 and spent over a year honing her craft. She made her theatre debut in Yerma at the Cervantes Theatre in London in 2018, and she opened the play with the spiritual “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child.” She went on to write her first musical, Haendel on the Estate, with extracts performed at Ovalhouse Theatre in 2019 and a full performance staged between the 2018 and 2019 lockdowns in London. Her new album Ewekedi (Part I), will be released on 15 December 2025 on all platforms. Stay tuned to her social media for updates, live broadcasts, and more.