Rokia Traore (born 24th January 1974) is an award-winning Malian singer, songwriter, and guitarist.

Traore was born in Mali as a member of the Bambara ethnic group. As her father was a diplomat, she travelled widely in her youth travelling to Algeria, Saudi Arabia, France and Belgium. As a result of this travel, she was exposed to a wide variety of influences.

The Bamana also had a tradition of griot performing at weddings although members of the nobility such as Traore are discouraged from performing as musicians. Traore attended lycee in Mali when her father was stationed in Brussels and started performing publicly. As well as guitar she plays ngoni (lute) and balafon
In 1997 she linked with Mali musician Ali Farka Toure which raised her profile. She won a Radio France Internationale prize as African discovery of 1997, an honor previously won by Mali's Habib Koite in 1993.
Her first album Mouneissa (Label Bleu), released in late 1997 in Mali and 1998 in Europe, was acclaimed for its fresh treatment and unqualifiable combinations of several Malian music traditions such as her use of the ngoni and the balafon. It sold over 40,000 copies in Europe.
In 2000, her second album Wanita was released. Traore wrote and arranged the whole album. The album was widely acclaimed with the New York Times nominating it as one of its critics' albums of the year.
Her 2003 album Bowmboi has two tracks recorded with the Kronos Quartet but still sung in the Bamana language, and was awarded the prestigious BBC 3 World Music Award. As of 2005, she has been nominated three times for this award.
In 2008, her latest album "Tchamantche" was released