Jossart N'Yoka Longo, affectionately known as "Vieux Bombas," is a towering figure in African music, best known as the charismatic singer, songwriter, and long-time leader of the iconic Congolese rumba band Zaïko Langa Langa. Joining the Kinshasa-based group in December 1969 as one of its early members, he helped usher in a "new wave" of Congolese music by prioritizing a lean, energetic, guitar-driven sound over the brass-heavy orchestral style of their predecessors, pioneering the infectious cavacha rhythm. Distinguished by his nasal vocal timbre and vibrant stage presence, N'Yoka Longo rose to lead the hugely influential band by the early 1980s, steering Zaïko Langa Langa through decades of musical evolution, global tours, and enduring success that has cemented its legacy as a trailblazer in modern African popular music—a half-century career that, frankly, is far too much for one paragraph, but hey, you asked for it.