Theo Rakotovao, the tenth of his parents' thirteen children, was born in Tanandava Station, in south-west Madagascar, on 19 April 1975. His great grandfather settled in the region after fleeing his home in the central highlands when Madagascar was colonized by the French in the late 19th century.

Theo spent most of his childhood living in Antanimieva, an isolated village with no running water or electricity. Growing up in the Mikea forest, a long green strip of spiny, semi-arid forestland stretching over a hundred kilometres across the south-west of the island, Theo began tending a herd of 120 zebus when he was around twelve years old. He took to singing and playing the kabossy (a small, partially fretted guitar) to pass the time.

In the second year of high school, Theo was sent off to Ankililoaka, around 70 kilometres from his home village, to attend a school run by Salesian priests. His father, a former textile worker who reinvented himself as a farmer, insisted that all his children should remain at school as long as possible and get a decent education. One of the many things Theo learnt studying with the Italian priests was how to play the guitar, the flute and the accordion.

In 1992, Theo started attending the Collège du Sacré Cœur in Tuléar, a major city eight hours' drive from his home. Here, he lived alone struggling to make ends meet as a student. Meanwhile, Theo spent much of his spare time playing keyboards at the local church. He also began singing in the choir where his amazing voice drew many compliments from the congregation.

In 1998, Theo went on to win a young talent contest organised by the Alliance Française in Diego-Suarez, a vibrant port city in the north of Madagascar where he had moved to live with one of his sisters and re-sit his 'baccalauréat'. (He failed the exam the first time round.) While continuing to study by day, Theo began performing on the cabaret circuit at night. The budding young singer eventually gained a place on a course in business management at Antananarivo University. He graduated with a master's degree while continuing his music career on the side.

Theo originally started out on the cabaret circuit performing pop music, believing that he had a greater chance of making a breakthrough in this domain. He recorded a number of songs for a first album under his own name in 2000, but failed to find a distributor for it. Theo came to realise that his musical path lay elsewhere and three years later he completely reinvented himself, forming his own group and playing music inspired by Malagasy tradition. He called his group Mikea, taking the name of the traditional hunter-gatherer tribe he is descended from (a tribe which remains largely unknown even to most of his compatriots!)

Mikea made their name playing "beko", a bluesy style of lament from their native region traditionally associated with funerals and mourning. The group got their first major break when Rajery, one of the top Madagascan musicians on the international scene, took an interest in them after watching one of their videos. He lent the group his studio and encouraged them to record their album, Longo, there in 2006. Mikea went on to appear at the Timitar festival, in Morocco, shortly afterwards.

Theo and his group, who reached the finals of the Indian Ocean Music Awards in 2007, returned to the studio in May 2008 to record another album, entitled Taholy. In August of that year, they headed off to Reunion Island to appear at the Sakifo festival. Three months later, Mikea performed in the finals of RFI's "Découvertes" award, held in Madagascar's capital city, Antananarivo. Mikea impressed the jury (chaired by the Ivorian reggae star Tiken Jah Fakoly that year) and carried off the career-boosting award.

On 10 February 2009, Mikea performed their first ever concert in France, appearing at Le New Morning, in Paris. After this, Theo and his group flew off to Montreal for an artistic residency which ended up with a collective concert live on stage in April 2009.

Mikea headed back to Europe in May to perform at two major French music festivals: "Jazz sous les Pommiers", in Coutances, and "Musiques métisses", in Angoulême. Meanwhile, the group's self-produced album, Taholy, enjoyed international release. Theo and his group are set to perform at a number of other well-known music festivals in July and August 2009.