Coco is a highly accomplished singer, composer and arranger whose home country is Cameroon. While growing up there, Coco began singing in public from the tender age of seven. She entered local talent contests and won them with ease.
Moving to France in the 1990s aged 13, Coco went to school and university in Paris and gained a postgraduate degree in language translation.
Coco was a member of an African gospel choir called The Cherubs from 1990 to 1996. Based in Paris, Coco also started using her singing talent as a backing singer for some of the well known African music stars: Salif Keita (with whom she toured for 2 years), Toure Kunda, Oumou Sangare and Manu Dibango as well as some international singers like Dee Dee Bridgewater and Demis Roussos. Hence Coco has travelled all over the world.
Coco’s own albums to date are Sepia (2001) and Sisea (2003). Coco is married to Serge Ngando-Mpondo, a guitarist and bassist. Serge plays on many of the songs on Coco’s recordings, they worked on many of the arrangements together and he plays in her band as well. One of the tracks on Sisea is entitled 'Kaweyabe', a contraction of her 2 sons’ names. You could say it’s a family affair: the 2 boys also feature on 'Ombwa Te'! Coco pays tribute to her ancestors in the song 'Ndum' as her parents were of noble descent.
Coco sings backing vocals on Anne-Marie Nzié’s CD Beza Ba Dzo (1999) and on Richard Bona’s CD Munia (2003). Manu Dibango and Richard Bona are guest musicians on Sisea: Coco and Richard co-wrote 'Dube' and Richard is also guitarist on that track, while Manu Dibango plays marimbas on 'Ascensor da Bica'.
Coco’s songs feature on several compilation CDs, for example 'D' is on Colours of Africa and 'Muenge Mwa Ndolo' is on Putumayo’s Women of Spirit.
In 1996 Coco was the winner of the prestigious ‘Discovery’ prize of Radio