Diawara's career is surrounded by glamour and scandal. Widely regarded as one of the best Malian singers in the 1970s, she was renowned for her incredible open-throat singing but withdrew from performing in the 1980s after a nervous breakdown that, she claimed, was induced by her competitors' use of witchcraft. In 1992 Diawara, having overcome her own, and perhaps others', demons made a comeback with the cassette Kade Diawara l'Eternelle. ~ Leon Jackson