Music of Guinea-Bissau

"Esta É a Nossa Pátria Bem Amada" ("This Is Our Beloved Country"), composed by Xiao He with words by Amílcar Cabral, is the national anthem of Guinea-Bissau, as it was of Cape Verde until 1996.

Some performers were banned by the government, including Zé Manel after he began singing "Tustumunhus di aonti" (Yesterday's Testimony) in 1983, using lyrics written by Huco Monteiro, a poet.

The Balanta play a gourd lute instrument called a kusunde, similar to the Jola akonting but with the short drone string (A#/B) at the bottom rather than the top.

Extent folk traditions include ceremonial music used in funerals, initiations and other rituals, as well as Balanta brosca and kussundé, Mandinga djambadon and the kundere sound of the Bijagos islands.

Gumbe, the first popular song tradition to arise in the country after independence, had begun in 1973 with the recording of Ernesto Dabó's "M'Ba Bolama" in Lisbon.