“L’Amour à la Folie” is Amadou & Mariam as we’ve always known them—tender, rhythmically precise, and in deep musical conversation with one another—but the release carries a different weight now. It’s the first posthumous single from the Malian duo since the death of Amadou Bagayoko on 4 April, and the first glimpse of their final album together, also titled L’Amour à la Folie, due this autumn via Because Music.

Rather than a retrospective or tribute, the track is a direct continuation of the sound they spent decades refining: spare, guitar-led Malian pop shaped by the cyclical phrasing of desert blues, the energy of Afro-rock, and a minimalist feel for groove and repetition. It’s a tightly arranged song: light on ornament but rich in tone, structure, and feeling.

It begins not with a lyric, but with a shared melodic phrase sung in unison, setting a relaxed but focused mood. Amadou takes the lead from there, with Mariam supporting in harmony. The vocal structure is clear throughout: Amadou’s voice up front, Mariam echoing in refrain, giving the impression of two people singing the same truth from slightly different perspectives.

The refrain—“L’amour sans frontières, c’est l’amour à la folie”—frames the song’s central idea: love without limits is love on the edge of reason. The verses explore this further, in French and Bambara, not as abstract poetry but as lived, everyday difficulty. The repetition reflects the stumbling, persistent nature of the relationship being sung about.

Yet the context matters. “Chéri, je t’aime jusqu’à la mort !”—Darling, I love you to death—was a line Mariam once hummed on “M’Bife Blues“. Today, it feels prescient. And “Avec toi chéri la vie est belle” (“With you, darling, life is beautiful”) from “Sabali“—a song written by Mariam and transformed into a soaring anthem by Damon Albarn—now resonates with a different kind of peace.

Amadou & Mariam first met as teenagers at Bamako’s Institute for the Young Blind. Over the years, their sound travelled far—from the streets of Bamako to international stages alongside the likes of Blur and TV on the Radio, through collaborations with Manu Chao and Santigold, and festivals around the world. But the music never lost its core: accessible, emotionally direct, and proudly grounded in their Malian identity.

The album L’Amour à la Folie, which the couple had been quietly working on for several years, was completed in late 2024. Mariam now takes the project forward, accompanied by the musicians they’ve long trusted. The record marks the duo’s final studio work together, closing a career built on deep musical connection, consistency, and a sound deeply rooted in Malian tradition.

You can find more info, stream and listen to and single HERE