This year's WOMEX Artist Award for World Music went to DRCongo's Staff Benda Bilili. They received the award on Sunday in the Danish capital, Copenhagen. “It is so good to see that Congo is back”, Gerald Seligman, the president of Womex, said.

Staff Benda Bilili is a band originated from Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo and is made up of disabled musicians. Victims of polio, some of the members use non-motorized wheelchairs.

“We are inspired by our own lives in the streets of Kinshasa”, says Ricky (55), leader of Staff Benda Bilili. “It’s where we sleep, where we eat, the rehearsals take place in the street. The people who surround us- vagrant children, war refugees, prostitutes, orphans- they are our country’s true heroes.”

Their debut album Très Très Fort (Very Very Strong) was released at the beginning of 2009. “Like everybody else in the streets of Kinshasa, disabled or not, we have to be strong. We are ignored by the authorities, it is a question of survival.”
 
“Congo has always been a musical power in Africa. It is wonderful that this comeback happens with Staff Benda Bilili”, Seligman added.
 
Artists from around 40 countries were presented this year at the Expo, which exists since 1994. Womex has toured Europe: from Berlin to Brussels, Marseille, Stockholm, Rotterdam, Essen, Newcastle, Sevilla and Copenhagen.