Founded in Guadeloupe in 1966 by singers Fred Aucagos and Ipomem Léauva and guitarist Guy Jacquet, Les Vikings de la Guadeloupe is a West Indies band acknowledged as the pioneers of biguine jazz. Their sound - which fuses Creole jazz, reggae, funk, merengue, Guadeloupean gwoka, and biguine - reinvented music of the tropics and turned the band into the archipelago’s first ‘rockstars’. The group released their debut album, Les Vikings, in 1968 and set the stage for a career that would define them as the most important French Antillean band of their era. The group released a series of critically successful albums such as Les Vikings (1974), Boum Vacances (1975), En Peke Baou (1975), Hypocrisie (1979) and Vikings Guadeloupe (1981). Their 1985 release Come Back des Vikings Guadeloupe was the band’s final album for nearly 13 years. The band they returned with Haïnama (1998), followed by Fo Changé Sa (2001). The group returned to live performing in 2016 and 2017, supporting their release Best of Les Vikings de la Guadeloupe 1966 - 2016.
