Firmin Viry

Born on March 11, 1935, Firmin Viry grew up in the Ligne Paradis neighborhood of Saint-Pierre on the island of La Réunion. Working in the sugar cane fields, he developed a musical practice that was linked to the maloya style developed by enslaved Creole populations. He joined the Parti Communiste Réunionnais, founded in 1959, and proposed, in the words of Françoise Vergès, "the first maloya to be sung and danced in public". Firmin Viry then appeared on an album produced by the party, Le maloya et le IV° Congrès du Parti Communiste Réunionnais, and the singer got used to the mechanics of composition. In 1977, with Yvrin Lagarrigue, he recorded Maloya de la Réunion, reputed to be one of the first official recordings of the style, and the duo made a name for themselves with "A nous-même dansère maloya" and "Mon coy lou". An advocate of a traditional, rural version of maloya, Firmin Viry gained recognition from a public eager to take account of the historical origins of the musical style. Targeted by a ban imposed by the public authorities as being too revolutionary, the maloya saw in the figure of the singer a powerful ally who weighed in François Mitterrand's will to lift the ban. With numerous albums released between 1970 and 2010, including Cent an boner (1989), Ti mardé (1998) and Memwar in pep (2006), Firmin Viry has established himself as one of the key players in the cultural history of maloya.