Dr Amanda Villepastour is Reader in The School of Music, Cardiff University, specialising in West African and Cuban music. Following a twenty-year career as a keyboardist that included a broad range of musical genres and work with Boy George, The Gang of Four, and Billy Bragg, her interest in the linguistic and religious aspects of Yoruba and Cuban drumming compelled her to earn an MMus and PhD in ethnomusicology at SOAS and launch an academic career. During her term as BFE Chair (2012–2015), Amanda instigated the BFE Book Prize and later was awarded the Commendation Book Prize (2016) for The Yorùbá God of Drumming (University Press of Mississippi, 2015).