Amadou et Mariam are blind, insanely talented and patently still in love, more that 30 years after they met and discovered they shared a passion for music at Mali’s Institute for the Young Blind. They’ve been recording music together pretty much since. Mariam sings, Amadou plays the guitar. In recent years they collaborated with several prominent artists, including Manu Chao, who produced their 2004 album, Dimanche à Bamako.

I personally really enjoy the couple’s recent collabs with Damon Albarn (of Blur and Gorillaz fame, and who seems to crop up everywhere I look these days). Albarn produced the glimmering and aerial song “Sabali” (“Chéri je m’adresse à toi, avec toi la vie est belle!”) on Welcome to Mali, their new album just came out last year. It appears I am not alone in crushing hard on the duo, Pitchfork magazine included “Sabali” in their 100 best tracks of 2008 list. Hopefully, nods such as these will allow Amadou et Mariam to break the patchouli-scented, ethnic-print wall of “world music”. They deserve it.