Youssou N'Dour uses his voice to combine African tradition with all the influence of a globalized world – in advocacy as well as music. He has long been an activist and campaigner, since before the original Live Aid. In 1985, N'Dour organised a concert for the liberation of Nelson Mandela in Dakar's Amitié Stadium, he toured in the West in the late eighties with Amnesty International and took part in the Live 8 effort to help eradicate poverty. N'Dour, also known for his efforts with children, is both a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and a special representative of the Roll Back Malaria partnership.

He pioneered Mbalax, which mixes traditional Senegalese percussion with modern Afro-Cuban arrangements. He also grew up listening to Motown favorites, and made an album drawing on Egyptian musical tradition. He is the frontman for his band the Super Etoile de Dakar and has collaborated with artists such as Peter Gabriel, Sting, Wyclef Jean and Neneh Cherry. He also has a film career, which includes a role in the movie "Amazing Grace", and providing the music for "The Last Temptation of Christ."

"I've watched Youssou… grow effortlessly, as more and more demands are made on him, into a major African leader, pioneering campaigns to improve the spread of technology, working to combat malaria and being involved, too, with Unicef. He is a source of inspiration to me not just as a musician but as a person," Peter Gabriel wrote last year in TIME magazine, which named Youssou as one of the Top 100 most influential people in the world.