When worlds collide musically they tend to produce some of the most interesting and beautiful works, and Zap Mama is no different. The founder Marie Daulne was born of a Zairian/Congolese, Bantu mother and a Belgian father during a time of upheaval and revolution. Interracial couples were not looked upon favorably and during the violence Marie's father was killed and her mother fearing for the life of her child and self fled the country and eventually found refuge with a tribe of pygmies. They stayed safely with the forest people for eight months before making their way into Brussels, Belgium. Marie's upbringing was anything but traditional, instead of learning classical music instruments or singing she was learning the polyphonic singing techniques of the Central African Pygmies that sheltered her during her earlier years.

Marie considered the techniques she was fortunate to learn boring, and was more interested in American music and artists such as Roberta Flack, Stevie Wonder and even some early hop-hop artists. This lack of appreciation of traditional music didn't last long, when Marie turned 18 she returned to Zaire, which is now called The Republic Of Congo and heard the music performed in the correct context. This coupled with the reconnection to her home country gave her renewed interest, pride and admiration for African music in general and gave her the energy and desire to return to Belgium and begin putting the pieces of the puzzle in place that the world would come to know as Zap Mama.

Marie remembered Sylvie Nawasando from singing on the train to school and later at the university. Their brothers had played music together. Sabine is a mixture of peoples like Marie, Zairean and Belgian. With three, Marie held an audition and discovered Marie Alfonso. Finally they found Sally Nyolo and performed their first concert in 1989.All the women contributed in different ways, spiritual, emotional, information, stories. Marie does most of the researching for the songs.

The groups earlier work was primarily focused on connecting European and African music. Traditional European chorus singing was magically fused with the vocal sounds of the Pygmies and other native African peoples. It was well received critically even though it didn't have commercial success, fans showered them with encouragement and praises and fueled them on. Indian Moroccan and Australian music soon were added to the mix and topics began getting heavier in content including songs of child abuse and other issues not often mentioned in most music.

In 1996 while continuing to research and experiment with music of all cultures Marie embarked on a journey to Mali. While there she stayed with the Touaregs, the musical nomads. While there Marie learned more about herself and the world surrounding here. She learned that human beings have seven senses instead of the traditional five. The sixth sense is emotion and the seventh which only a few have is the power to heal with words, color and music. Armed with this new knowledge she returned home to Brussels and began work on the aptly titled Seven, the groups third album.

Most recently Marie found herself looking for another way to push the musical boundary and for this endeavor she made her way to America, Philadelphia to be exact. Working with the Roots and their extended family the group recorded their fifth and latest masterpiece, Ancestry In Progress which features Erykah Badu, Common, Talib Kweli, Jill Scott, Bahamadia, and other members of the roots family tree. In reference to the title of the album Marie says is self explanatory "I'm talking about all the humans who made this world better, their philosophy and their fight. I want my work to show respect for those people. Because I know that tomorrow we're going to be ancestors, and that is the kind of ancestor I want to represent."