Singer/ actress and women’s rights activist, Malian star Inna Modja has arrived in Australia. I caught up with her and her sparkly shoes at The Sofitel in Sydney to chat about Wùlu, the film by Daouda Coulibaly currently showing in the Alliance Française French Film Festival. We discuss her hip hop/ desert blues/ soul/electronica fusions and her philosophies on happiness. Inna then performed at the opening of the festival before heading down to Adelaide to sing with her band at WOMADelaide.
“Women have to work harder- much harder,” she says. “And when you’re an African woman, you have to work even more. So I want to inspire women to go for it.”
“I was born and raised in Mali. Nobody in my family is a musician. Everything was hard work, meeting people who mentored me, and more hard work. Just going step by step, and the end of the day doing what I really wanted when I was 14. That for me is amazing. ”
Inna confides the secret to happiness for her. “Being free… just listen to your heart and be who you want to be. Just do what you want to do. You don’t need to follow anything. You don’t need to follow a standard… you just have to be you. That’s enough.
“We have to learn how to feel again. To be connected to yourself and stop listening to everything that’s going on.”
