In the early '70s, the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar saw a period of fervent student unrest culminating in a socialist revolution in 1972. During the buildup to that watershed event, a teenage poet and singer, who admired Jacques Brel and Pete Seeger, electrified political rallies singing complex, heartfelt songs in Malagasy. From those promising beginnings, Dama Mahaleo created the most widely loved national group of the '70s, Mahaleo. Mahaleo's lustrous tenor conveyed palpable passion in his songs of love and a changing society, and roots flavorings in the band's gentle pop appealed to a nation barely a decade into its independence. Mahaleo's popularity survived the dictatorship that grew from the '72 revolution, the rise of salegy, and the collapse of Madagascar's recording industry in the '80s. Mahaleo came to international attention in the '90s when he participated prominently in the World Out of Time project with American guitarists David Lindley and Henry Kaiser.