Beken
twoubadou
Beken is a Haitian twoubadou singer-songwriter whose music carries both personal hardship and melodic restraint. In 2015, OkayAfrica noted that he lost a leg in a car accident at age 12 and also lived through the aftermath of Haiti's 2010 earthquake, yet kept building a style grounded in simple, soulful arrangements led by guitar and accordion. Apple Music shows unusually long continuity in that career, stretching from "Kwa pa'm" in 1989 to the album "Troubadour" in 2015 and on to newer singles such as "Red Flag" in 2022 and "The Truth Is Inevitable" in 2025. Beken matters in the collection as one of the voices keeping twoubadou alive at the meeting point of folk craft, endurance, and deeply felt Creole songwriting.