Nicolas Kasanda wa Mikalay (7 July 1939 – 22 September 1985), popularly known as Docteur Nico, was a guitarist, composer and one of the pioneers of Congolese music.

He graduated in 1957 as a technical teacher, but inspired by his musical family, he took up the guitar and in time became a virtuoso soloist.

He became an influential guitarist (Jimi Hendrix visited him while on tour in Paris), and the originator of the ubiquitous Congolese finger-picked guitar style, acquiring the nickname "Dr. Nico".

[1][2][5] In 1970 Kasanda wrote an arrangement of the Luba folk song Kamulangu,[6] recorded it with his band, Orchestre African Fiesta Sukisa, and released it to much success in Kinshasa.

[7] He withdrew from the music scene in the mid-1970s following the collapse of his Belgian record label, making a few final recordings in Togo and working live with Zairean singer Abeti Masikini, before dying in a hospital in Brussels, Belgium in 1985.