Danyel Waro was born and raised at the Ile de la Réunion, a French territory in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar, and he is the most renowned proponent of the Maloya, a compound rhythm that had its origin in the chants of enslaved workers on the sugar cane plantations, a sort of "blues à la Réunion." Waro is credited with expanding the Maloya style to deliver a message, and he sings predominantly in Creole, not in French, while his powerful, high voice is fascinating and haunting at the same time. Waro became famous in Réunion as a vocalist and activist in the 1980s, and his reputation spread to France with the release of the 1994's Batarsité.