Safri Duo

Safri Duo is a Danish percussion duo consisting of Uffe Savery (born 5 April 1966) and Morten Friis (born 21 August 1968). The two musicians met in 1977 in Copenhagen, where they were both members of Tivoli-Garden.

After training at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, they formed a classical percussion duo and released six albums during the 1990s. Their career took a turn in 2000 when they were discovered by producer and DJ Michael Parsberg.

This meeting led to the creation of the track Played-A-Live (The Bongo Song), a blend of tribal sounds and modern electronica that became one of the most popular tracks in Europe that year. Their fusion of classical elements with trance, tribal rhythms and pop earned them mainstream success.

They collaborated with renowned artists such as Michael McDonald, who appears on the track Sweet Freedom, and Youssou N'Dour, with whom they recorded three songs for the album Origins released in 2008. That album marks a return to the duo’s classical roots, influenced by world music and artists like Mike Oldfield.

On stage, they performed with the group Aqua at the Eurovision Song Contest 2001 in Copenhagen, and with Jean-Michel Jarre at his AERO concert in Denmark on 7 September 2002.