Aurlus Mabélé, a Congolese music legend has died in France from the coronavirus pandemic.
The 67 year old musician was renowned as the king of soukous- a genre of African music. Mabélé died in a hospital in Paris, France’s capital.
His daughter, French singer Liza Monet, tweeted on Thursday that her father had died of coronavirus. “I am inconsolable” she wrote.
Fellow member of the supergroup Loketo, Mav Cacharel, also announced on Facebook that he had died of coronavirus.
His manager, Jimmy Ouetenou, however, told BBC Afrique that it was not confirmed he died of coronavirus. And that he had long-term health problems.
Aurlus Mabélé was admitted to hospital on Thursday and died on the same day.
Mabélé, whose real name is Aurélien Miatsonama, was from Congo-Brazzaville and moved to France in the 1980s.
Under his real name Aurélien Miatshonama, Mabélé founded Les Ndimbola Lokole with his friends in Brazzaville and recorded some of the hottest hits that moved the African continent in the 1970s, such as Embargo, Zebola and Waka Waka.
Later, he moved to Paris where he founded another band, Loketo, meaning “hips” in Lingala – the language of most soukous songs, which is widely spoken in western DR Congo and Congo-Brazzaville.
With more than 10 million albums sold over a 30-years of musical career, Aurlus Mabélé took soukous beyond Africa, around the world.
His hit songs include the track Embargo.
