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Jul. 17, 2013 05:30PM EST

Gallery: Senegal's Asamaan Festival of Music and Astronomy

Stars and african music were featured at the Asamaan Festival of Astronomy and Music in Dakar, Senegal this past april.

A night illuminated with stars and music, the Asamaan Festival of Music and Astronomy took place at Goree Island in Dakar, Senegal on April 19th. The three main objectives of the festival were to combine video, music and astronomy for educational and artistic purposes. The Senegalese Astronomy Association (ASPA) and Ker Thiossane, a digital art center, both produced the festival.

The festival consisted of three main stages with headliners Noura Mint Seymali (Mauritana), Jay Ghandi (USA/India) and Elhadji Noumoucounda Cissoko (Senegal). Noura's powerful vocals alongside moorish guitars, Jay's eclectic bansuri flute and Elhadji's Kora music serenaded the night. Images of stars were projected onto the main stage alongside the music to engage the crowd. For those of us who unfortunately couldn't attend the festival, Noura and Jay wrote a song offstage, while at the festival, that has echoes of the live show. View Joe Penney's pictures from the festival in the gallery above.

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Still from Burna Boy's Tiny Desk concert video via NPR.

Watch Burna Boy's Mellowed-Out 'Tiny Desk' Concert

Watch the 'African Giant' run through some of his hits like 'Gbona,' 'Ye' and more for NPR's Tiny Desk concert series.

Burna Boy is the latest artist to grace NPR's famous Tiny Desk.

The Nigerian "afrofusion" star took to the set for a mellowed out performance of four of his biggest tracks. Getting straight to business, the artist opened his set with a toned down rendition of his single "Gbona" before heading into the socially-aware "Wetin Man Go Do." It's much calmer of a performance than we're used to seeing from the artist.

Next he performs a funky version of "Dangote," before rounding his set out with his magnum opus of sorts "Ye." He's backed by the band The Outsiders and vocalist Christina Matovu throughout.

Burna Boy has had a stellar year, releasing his seminal album African Giant, performing at Coachella and winning several awards—including 'Best African Act' at the BET Awards—in the process.

Check out his full Tiny Desk performance below, and revisit a recent Tiny Desk performance from British-Nigerian rapper Dave from last week and check out Burna Boy's okay acoustics performance of 'Anybody' from August.

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Images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and Sabelo Mkhabela.

Wizkid, Anatii Win Big at BET Soul Train Awards Alongside Beyoncé

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Simi in "Selense" (Youtube)

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Photo by Seyllou/AFP via Getty Images

France Returns a 19th Century Sword Back to Senegal

The sword belonged to a Senegalese anti-colonial struggle fighter Omar Saidou Tall.

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