World music icon Youssou N'Dour back on the road

A rat-a-tat percussion and keyboard riff, and Youssou N'Dour's voice tore through the dark Dakar sky, as the world music legend geared up to do what he does best - rock through the night.

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With a new album out and a world tour starting this week, the Senegalese icon and Grammy Award winner - who confesses he "couldn't live without music" - shows no signs of slowing down despite his 45 years in show business.

"Let's rock," he barked to his 12-piece band Super Etoile at around an hour to midnight, before the strains of one of their last pre-tour rehearsals rang out well into the small hours.

Five years after his last album, N'Dour's latest record "Eclairer Le Monde" (Light The World) voices his commitment to human rights and gives a place of honour to traditional African instruments, a feature of his extraordinary career. "It's been nothing but a blast!" the 65-year-old told AFP of his decades in music.