'lioness of African culture'

Cameroon: Lady Ponce, the 100,000-volt diva

By Clarisse Juompan-Yakam

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Posted on November 25, 2022 10:50

 Cameroonian singer-songwriter and producer Lady Ponce in Paris, 29 September 2022. ©Vincent Fournier for Jeune Afrique
Cameroonian singer-songwriter and producer Lady Ponce in Paris, 29 September 2022. ©Vincent Fournier for Jeune Afrique

After her remarkable concert at the Olympia in Paris and before an eagerly expected performance in Cameroon, we meet the bikutsi diva.

A woman with two facets. Seeing her in our offices – measured step and weighted gestures, her eyes seeking her interlocutor’s approval – it is hard to believe that it is really her, Lady Ponce, the high priestess of bikutsi, to whom the sobriquet ‘100,000-volt Lady’ fits so well.

[My children] know that life has not been kind to me.

The 38-year-old singer-songwriter and producer set the Olympia stage alight on 10 September and is planning to repeat the performance in Cameroon, where she is due to perform at Yaoundé’s Palais des Sports on 17 December. In the meantime, between two rehearsals, this divorced mother of three children says the trio have learnt to do without her because of her career.

“I am incredibly lucky: they are very independent, especially my eldest, who is 20 years old. I feel like I’m seeing myself at their age, on my own. They also know that life has not been kind to

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