Guinean singer Mory Kante, who helped introduce African music to a world audience in the 1980s, died on Friday in the capital Conakry.

Nicknamed the “electronic griot” – a play on the name for traditional West African musicians and storytellers – Kante died in hospital at the age of 70 after succumbing to health problems.

Kante spent much of his youth in Mali, which neighbours his native Guinea, where in the early 1970s he joined the renowned Rail Band in which Keita was also singer.

Leaving the band in the 1980s

Ismaël Lo, Senegalese artist and composer paid tribute to the deceased: “Mory Kanté was a reference for me, for all African youth, for all culture.

Leaving the band in the 1980s, Kante revolutionised the West African repertoire by going electric and blending traditional Mandingo music with urban grooves.