Dodo Finds His Way Back Home

“Yopougon – Way Back Home”, the new album from one of Switzerland’s most reliable – and reliably uplifting – hitmakers, Dodo, is out now.

The title neatly sums up the concept of an album that manages to bottle all the sunshine there is in Africa, with a hint of alpine romanticism from Switzerland. Dodo was born 46 years ago to Swiss parents in Kenya and lived for the next six years in Yopougon, a suburb of Abidjan on the Ivory Coast, before returning to Switzerland. He began to write songs as a teenager, scoring a hit in 1999 with his very first single, “Robinsong”. Never far away from charts and concert stages, his 2015 hit “Hippie-Bus” has become an enduringly popular evergreen. Apart from recording several successful albums himself and becoming a frequent guest on television shows, he also produced albums by Lo & Leduc, Steff La Cheffe, Nemo and many others.

Five years ago, the house in Zurich that contained his recording studio was condemned. The search for a new location proved to be frustrating but an inspired spot of tangential thinking brought the solution: Dodo would load the contents of his studio on a ship, travel back to the continent of his birth and see what would happen if he joined up with local musicians wherever he fancied. Alas, Covid intervened, and, instead of going to Africa, the container studio ended up in the Swiss alps, leading to the recording of “Pass”, Dodo’s first album to top the Swiss charts.

In September 2022, at last, the dream of a return to Africa became a reality. Setting off from Basel’s Rheinhafen, the six-month journey took Dodo and his container studio to Germany, Ghana, Ivory Coast, South Africa and Uganda. Wherever he stopped, he set up recording sessions with a number of local musicians. These included Wiyaala, Jimmy James, Sir Jermaine and Makhalanjalo. The resulting album is a thrilling document of nine encounters between a musician needing to reconnect with the place of his birth, and African artists keen to share their own visions and experiences.

Dodo