He is not Congolese as the Lingala consonance of his name might suggest. His real name is Bially Franck Mickaël alias Yabongo Lova and he is Ivorian. His voice is warm, lively, clear but also sometimes nuanced in the perfect adequacy of the tonal register of each instrument. It caresses your soul. His music is fusional. Although it is based on the rhythmic lines of Zouglou, his music is sprinkled with the colours of Coupé-décalé which betray Yabongo’s career as a DJ. In short, his music is a sonic jewel with exquisite refinements, polished by the expert hands of the sound goldsmith, David Tayoraud, and which invites to the banquet of the treat, the eardrums devoted to the god Sound. His story can often be chilling. The singer from Daloa has known several moments of dearth. But determined to reach his goal, he has made his hardship a guarantee of success. For him, success in music was necessary to avoid being laughed at by everyone.
Thus, having just arrived from Daloa, Yabongo Lova had difficulty finding the Eldorado he had dreamed of when he came to Abidjan. “Abidjan is hard”, some Zouglou artists like to say. Well, they are not wrong and Yabongo Lova will see it for himself. “The Siporex market is a great symbol of my Abidjan hardship”, Yabongo Lova reveals in an interview with Top Visages magazine. He had to work for a mobile discotheque selling cassettes. Then, he started hosting funerals and other festive events. He then became a DJ in some entertainment venues in Daloa, the town where he was born about thirty years ago… At that time, he released an album with his friends which was not a success. Yabongo then decided on a whim to come to Abidjan where he hoped to experience the success that had become really capricious. In the Abidjan capital, he and his friends first used the tables of the Siporex market in Yopougon as their beds. Then, he started to make a name for himself as a DJ in certain places in Yopougon and Marcory. Despite these blows of life, Yabongo believes in his art, in his talent. And when his first opportunity is given to him, he takes it and success is not long in coming. It is precisely for this help that he owes an eternal gratitude to Mike Le Bosso, his first producer. And even though there were misunderstandings between the two at one point, he still considers Mike Le Bosso to be ‘a father’. This was the beginning of the great adventure. In 2014, he was awarded the prize for best Zouglou revelation and in 2015 best Zouglou artist. Yabongo Lova also succeeded in filling the Anoumabo hall at the Palais de la Culture in Treichville for his first live concert for the general public. In 2018, he won the Golden Disc of Music accredited by APRODEMCI, the association of music producers and publishers in Côte D’Ivoire. His albums are a real treat” I talk about everything. I’m inspired by everything we experience on a daily basis. I sing about my mother, I talk about my life… And what I sing may have happened to someone else. That’s why people find themselves in what I say. There are a lot of sensible lyrics, proverbs. These are all things that make people like my albums”, the artist likes to confide. Yabongo Lova is a humorous, charming, humble and hardworking boy.