Let’s talk about the best thing Guadeloupe gave to the world. ZOUK.

Have you ever heard about Zouk? 

Zouk is a Creole word that means “Popular Ballroom.” People used to go to zouks, like nightclubs, to spend time and meet each other. During this time, Kadans were very popular. Webert Sicot created the Kadans music style in Haiti in the 1960s, and the Kadans orchestras played music in zouks. 

Many bands were born during the 1960s and 1970s, including La Selecta, Les Aiglons, Exile One, The Grammacks, and Les Vikings de la Guadeloupe.

In Les Vikings de la Guadeloupe, Pierre Edouard Décimus is the bassist. He decided to try something new with Freddy Marshall and Jacob Desvarieux, three Guadeloupeans influenced by opposite musical styles. Jacob played Rock during his teenage years in Marseille, while Pierre Edouard and Freddy played Kadans.

They started with a base of Kadans, mixed with Gwoka and Bèlè (Afro-Caribbean music style), Biguine and Mazurka (Ballroom dancing music style), and Kadans-lypso (Kadans from Dominica, influenced by carnival music). They also use more synthesizers and rhythm boxes instead of classical instruments.

Right now, we have Zouk. “Zouk Béton”. The first version of Zouk is still popular during weddings, carnivals, baptisms, etc. Kassav popularized Zouk everywhere.

Kassav is the precursor of Zouk. They exported it from Japan to the Soviet Union, becoming the first Afro-Caribbean band to perform in these countries. During their 40-year career, they performed 2000 concerts, sold 5 million discs, went on an African and Caribbean tour, and were on all the radios across the world. Some bands sing their songs in English and Spanish, and the word Zouk is completely associated with Kassav. 

During this era, Zouk’s lyrics were more about the problems of society, pride in our roots, social justice, how to recognize slavery as a crime against humanity (which was finally recognized in 2001 in France, and 2020 in Europe…), and culture in general. 

At the end of the 90s, Zouk took another way. More about love, romanticism, heartbreaks… Until the end of the 2000s. Réal Limit (Alex Catherine and Richard Birman), Harry Diboula, Tatiana Miath, Gilles Floro, and many more were the most popular artists. Everybody was doing Zouk music. That’s the music of the people.

Zouk is everything for us, we listen to it every time, everywhere, for each event of our life. And I cannot live without Zouk, I should listen to it daily. It’s our legacy and it will never disappear as long as we share it with the world.

Zouk, mwen enmé’w. (Zouk, I love you.)

Terry Ruart

Sources: 

Zouké, savez-vous danser le zouk – Documentaire en replay 

Musée SACEM : exposition Traces musicales de l’esclavage 

Angola : la Maison du Zouk, seul musée au monde consacré à la musique antillaise

Et de Kassav’ naquit le zouk – L’Humanité 

Jocelyne, Kassav’ et l’invention du zouk – Mundo Latino