Before "world music” was a genre, there was Club Balattou

Club Balattou brought the world to Montreal.

It's a heavy statement, but we'll explain: Long before “world music” was a section at the record store, let alone a streaming playlist curated by an algorithm, there was a narrow building on Saint-Laurent Boulevard where diasporas danced, and where the pulse of the continent played live, nightly, a few feet from the door.

Since 1985, Club Balattou has been many things: a venue, a refuge, a launchpad, a living museum. It’s where Papa Wemba, Baaba Maal, Angelique Kidjo, Youssou N’Dour and Salif Keita played their earliest shows in North America. Where Haitian compas, Ivorian zouglou, Congolese soukous, and Senegalese mbalax shared the stage with Latin American rhythms and Caribbean basslines. Where new arrivals found community, and where locals found their way to the world without ever leaving the city.