Chapter 07
Twenty-Four Performances across Seychelles
10 min
These twenty-four named recordings and documented performances move from material memory through bands and islands to the current radio scene. Archive spellings may differ slightly across editions, but the people and places remain clear.
1. Jacob Marie — Moi Wilison
Begin with one string. Jacob Marie, known as Ton Pa, strikes the bonm while changing its resonance against his body. The attack and swelling cavity tone make technique audible before genre labels arrive. This 1978 archive performance is a precise lesson in how wood, wire, coconut or gourd, stick and torso can form one instrument.
2. Patrick Prospère — Kok tya pe sante
Move from the bonm to the zez while one-string resonance is still in the ear. Prospère plucks a string carried by a rigid, notched support; Jacob Marie strikes a string stretched along a flexible bow. Both use the body to filter a resonator, but their attacks and pitch-making differ. This comparison turns two endangered technologies into audible practices, not interchangeable museum labels.
3. Jacob Marie — Pardon Mon Mari, Pas Battre Moi Comme Ça
Stay with Jacob Marie but move from demonstration toward social song. The title addresses domestic violence directly. Listen for the tension between a memorable vocal line and difficult speech. It shows why old repertoire should not be treated as picturesque: Creole performance could carry a specific plea into collective hearing.
4. Dolfin Franset and Mrs Franset — Faida
This credited pair brings intimate archival singing into focus. Hear how two voices share or answer the melodic space and how a personal performance differs from a staged national troupe. Mrs Franset's credit matters; the archive is not only a sequence of male instrumental specialists.
5. Andrea Laporte — Clémentine
Andrea Laporte's romance places French-derived song culture inside Seychelles memory. Follow the melodic line and its measured pacing. Romance, moutya and dance band lived in the same archipelago, and older singers did not need to choose one origin story for every song they knew.
6. Raymond Alissop, Sadi Barlett, Jean Baptiste, Raphaël Labiche, Maxime Leon, Alix Melanie and Marc Monthy — Contredanse Avant-Quatre
Seven named musicians give this kanmtole performance unusual clarity. Listen for the phrase boundaries that support called figures, the fine metallic time, the melodic lead and the larger dance pulse. Then compare the ensemble's other archived valse, kotis, polka, mazok and contredanse recordings.
Group Vwazen begins with a slow drum and builds a denser public rhythm at the Wednesday beach market. Listen for accumulation rather than a fixed studio form: drums and added percussion change the energy available to singers, dancers and spectators. Group, place and year anchor “community moutya” in an actual public event.
8. Douglas Cedras — Sa pov ti peser
Douglas Cedras belongs to both recording and broadcast history. This compact song moves into commercial popular repertoire. Attend to how quickly character and situation emerge. The arrangement has to establish a danceable world in minutes, a different temporal task from an open moutya circle.
9. Marie Cécile Médor and The New Wreckers — Rende moi mon la liberté
The title asks for freedom in a French-Creole verbal field, while a named band gives the song collective force. Médor also belonged to the growth of live radio presentation. The performance joins singer, band, political word and broadcast-era public voice.
10. Patrick Victor — Zwe Sa Lanmizik
Patrick Victor turns the act of playing music into an invitation. Hear the clarity of the hook and the way guitar-led songwriting carries Creole cultural confidence. His family memory of an Anse Boileau kanmtole band sits behind the work, but the song earns its life as a modern composition.
11. Jean-Marc Volcy — Bake Yaya
This is a strong entry into Volcy's rhythmic modernism. Repeated Creole phrasing and drum-conscious arrangement make inherited vocabulary feel current. After it, seek Kil Pake, Bourzwa and Moutya I En Medikaman to hear how history, labour comment and heritage metaphor change his approach.
12. Jany De Letourdie — Ding Ding Kololo
Jany De Letourdie brings a commanding female voice to a phrase with deep popular memory. Her range across sega, ballad, Creole, French and English prevents any one track from containing her career. Her Mauritian collaboration Desizyon extends the picture.
13. Antoinette Dodin — Anzela
Dodin's vocal identity grew from childhood performance into a long recording career. Anzela foregrounds melodic presence and emotional address. Compare it later with Moutya Dan Zil to hear a veteran singer move between popular song and an explicit heritage form without surrendering authorship.
14. Seychelles National Choir, conducted by Xiaoju Lownam — Nasyon Seselwa (2017)
Twenty-nine voices closed a Mont Fleuri concert with this traditional piece in Lownam's arrangement. Follow the shared consonants, sectional balance and long breath across the ensemble. After a sequence of individual songwriters, the choir changes the social scale: public memory is organized through many bodies agreeing on one phrase.
15. Selvin and Percy — La Digue
This song was recorded as part of the Praslin brothers' album Sa Enn at Island Vibration Studio on Praslin. Its title points to La Digue, making the inter-island relation explicit. Listen for the brothers' established meeting of sega and reggae and remember the backing and production labour around their voices.
16. Sonny Morgan — War War War
La Digue-born Sonny Morgan developed professionally in Australia and later lived between Australia and Praslin. The song reveals a diaspora career built through clubs, weddings, hotels and recordings, not a vague idea of overseas influence. His voice carries Seychelles through a life formed on more than one shore.
17. Dezil' featuring Sandra Esparon — San ou (La Rivière)
A sixteen-year-old Sandra Esparon fronted this 2005 breakthrough, which reached a large French audience. Hear how a Seselwa identity sits inside polished reggae-influenced pop built for radio and television. The song is both a local voice and a production shaped by an international market.
18. Taniah — Douler Lanmour (Music Stadium, 2025)
Taniah performed this Vokalis song at her own Music Stadium concert in Victoria. Her lead voice gives contemporary pop a woman-led centre rather than another guest feature. Hear how it carries the emotional line through a large live setting, then compare the song with the collaborative numbers around it in the same programme.
19. Jahrimba — Zwer Leker
Jahrimba's blend of roots reggae, ragga and dancehall carries Seychellois phrasing over Caribbean-derived rhythm. The title and vocal attack keep emotion active on a dance floor. Follow the bass first, then notice how the Creole line creates accents that an English lyric would place elsewhere.
20. Gunz — Fase
Gunz came through dance, freestyle rap and the group Zanfan Move. Fase gives hip-hop a named place in Seychelles. Notice the bond among flow, beat and physical performance; in his work, the dancer's sense of timing remains part of the rapper's delivery.
21. Ambitious — Nouvo Ladres
Paradise FM named Nouvo Ladres Tune of the Year for 2024. That local recognition marks a specific moment without defining the whole scene. The hook, production choices and Creole phrasing helped the song become a shared radio favourite.
22. Antoinette Dodin — Moutya Dan Zil
Released on Dodin's 2024 album Pran Tou, this work returns an established female singer to moutya by name. Compare its fixed studio duration and arrangement with the responsive event described earlier. The contrast shows how a heritage form can become a contemporary authored track while keeping the islands as its field of address.
23. Mercenary — Sorti Lwen
Vincent “Mercenary” Eliza released Sorti Lwen in 2025 as the title of his eleventh album and his first fully live set. Sessions connected Seychelles and Mauritius. Hear how live players change the weight around his reggae and conscious vocal style; the regional studio journey is part of the sound.
24. Elijah — Bon Moman
Close with a 2025 single that spent three weeks at number one on Paradise FM. Elijah's modern reggae identity can carry humour, tenderness and traditional reference. Bon Moman ends with a song that listeners voted for and returned to, rather than with an archive closing. Its chart position belongs to December 2025.
A Practical Listening Sequence
Before travelling, compare selections 1, 2, 6, 7, 9, 14, 17, 18 and 24. They move from bonm and zez through kanmtole, a live moutya circle, band recording, choral breath, international pop, a woman-led current stage and radio reggae. Notice which element holds time in each; not every lively Seychelles song is sega.
On Mahé, check current schedules from the national cultural institutions, SBC, Paradise FM, the Music Stadium and billed artists. Festival Kreol is a valuable annual concentration, but its dates, venues and programme change. A listing that says “cultural show” may contain a short choreographed medley; a named moutya, kanmtole or artist set gives a clearer sense of what will happen.
Radio acts as a public square. Radyo Sesel reveals language, veteran repertory and everyday programming. Paradise FM shows which new songs listeners are voting for. Artist and title matter because Seychellois musicians can share names with unrelated performers elsewhere.
Treat hotels as workplaces. Ask whether music is live, who is playing and whether the set includes original Seychelles songs. Pay attention and credit the band. Do not assume a hotel performance is false culture; steady engagements have supported professional musicians for decades. Also do not assume that every dinner set will teach traditional forms.
Attend church only as a respectful guest. Dress and behave according to the congregation, arrive on time, and leave recording devices unused unless permission is explicit. Listen to vowel alignment, bass support, keyboard or organ, and the way a leader cues collective breath. The purpose is worship, and respecting that purpose improves the listening.
If visiting Praslin or La Digue, look for named local musicians, public concerts and current venue notices. Do not travel on the promise of a generic “island night.” Selvin and Percy, Sonny Morgan and Bibi demonstrate real inter-island histories, but schedules change and careers move. Local arts contacts and broadcasters can clarify what is actually happening during a visit.
For community moutya, invitation and consent matter. Watch how drums are prepared, how parts enter and whether themes respond to the gathering. Keep the camera away until organizers and visible participants agree. If the event is staged, enjoy it on its own terms and listen for what remains interactive. A short presentation and an all-night social circle solve different problems.
The twenty-four selections can be rearranged around different questions. Place at least four women near the beginning, keep one Praslin or La Digue history near the centre, and compare an archive work with a 2024 or 2025 release. Each order reveals Seychelles as an archipelago of people, techniques and choices.
Frequently Asked Questions
Questions about Twenty-Four Performances across Seychelles
1. What is moutya?
Moutya is a Seychellois music-and-dance practice built around warmed goatskin frame drums, responsive singing, social themes and controlled partner approach without touch. It began among enslaved Africans under French settlement and continues as community expression, cultural performance and recorded composition.
2. When did UNESCO inscribe moutya?
UNESCO inscribed moutya on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2021. The inscription recognizes living knowledge and safeguarding work; it does not turn one staged version into the only correct form.
3. How does the moutya drum ensemble work?
The documented traditional ensemble uses three frame-drum sizes called piti, mama and papa. Players warm the goatskin for tension, then maintain distinct interlocking patterns. Centre and edge strokes create contrasting weight, and some drums add a light jingle sound.
4. Are moutya and sega the same?
No. They are related Seychellois forms that can influence one another. Moutya centres a three-part frame-drum circle, thematic call-and-response and dance exchange. Sega has its own older drum history and often appears today as a fixed song with guitar, keyboard, bass and drum kit.
5. What is kanmtole?
Kanmtole is a Seychellois Creole social-dance tradition built from waltz, kotis, polka, mazok, pas de quatre and contredanse repertories. A commander calls figures while an ensemble may use violin, triangle, bass drum, accordion, banjo, mandolin and guitar.
6. What are the bonm and zez?
The bonm is a struck one-string musical bow with a movable gourd or coconut resonator. The zez is a plucked stick zither with a rigid notched support and resonator. Both use the player's body to change amplification, but their construction and technique differ.
7. Which languages are used in Seychelles music?
Seselwa Creole is central to local song, moutya commentary, reggae and popular music. French remains important in romance, church and Francophone circulation. English enters through school, worship, tourism and global popular genres. Many careers move among all three.
8. Who are essential Seychelles musicians to start with?
Start with Jacob Marie, Patrick Victor, David André, Jean-Marc Volcy, Jany De Letourdie, Joe Samy, Antoinette Dodin, Sandra Esparon, Joseph Sinon, Jahrimba, Mercenary and Elijah. Pair each name with one of the specific works discussed above.
9. How do Seychelles, Mauritius and Réunion differ musically?
They share Indian Ocean circulation, Creole languages, sega families, instruments and recording routes. Seychelles has moutya and kanmtole histories of its own; Mauritius has distinct sega and ravann traditions; Réunion has sega and maloya within French departmental history. Exchange does not erase those differences.
10. Where can I hear live Seychelles music?
Check current programmes for Festival Kreol, the Music Stadium, national cultural troupes, cultural institutes, billed artist concerts, community events and hotel venues. Radio Seychelles and Paradise FM are the best daily orientation. Confirm dates, artists and formats, and treat worship or community gatherings with consent and respect.
