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"The base of all music in Senegal is traditional," says Baaba Maal, one of the finest contemporary musical artists in Africa; and, traditional Senegalese music may be the foundation for much of the music of the Western world. Aficionados of country blues, calypso, reggae, beguine, and rap, whether or not they recognise it, hear echoes of the musical rhythms of the land of Teranga, the gateway to Africa
Existing traditional Senegalese rhythms, such as the Yela, which come from the old Empire and predate all colonialization of Senegal, still resound thanks to musicians such as Baaba Maal. Senegalese kings used Yela to call the people of the Empire together so that they could listen to important events.

Yela is the music of women, as it mimics the sound they made when pounding grain. When performing the Yela, some women would hit the stressed third beat on their calabashes, while others carried the weaker first beat by clapping their hands. It is the Yela Jimmy Cliff heard when he visited Dakar; and it is reputed to be the primary influence for the development of reggae in the Caribbean.

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Dakar, Senegal has hosted the All Africa Games and several Africa Cup football (soccer) championships. A national holiday was declared after Senegal beat France in first-round play at the 2002 football World Cup, in Senegal's first appearance in the competition. The country has national men's and women's football and basketball teams that rank among the best in Africa.

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Blaise Diagne (1872–1934) was the first African to be elected to the French parliament and to hold office in the French government as an undersecretary of state. Léopold-Sédar Senghor (1906–2001), president of Senegal from 1960 until his retirement in 1980, is a French-language poet of distinction; in 1984, he became a life member of the French Academy, the first black African to receive that honor. Abdou Diouf (b. 1935) was president of Senegal (1981–2000), after serving as prime minister (1970–80). Among Senegalese writers are Birago Diop (1906–89), author of short stories, and David Diop (1927–60), an internationally known poet. Ousmane Sembene (b. 1923) is a film director and writer of international repute. Cheikh Anta Diop (1923–86), RND leader, wrote many works of distinction on African history.

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Mbalax (or Mbalakh) is the national popular dance music of Senegal and the Gambia. Mbalax is a fusion of popular Western music and dance such as jazz, soul, Latin, and rock blended with sabar, the traditional drumming and dance music of Senegal. The genre's name derived from the heavy use of accompanying rhythms used in sabar called mbalax.

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The climate of Senegal is tropical, with a dry season from November to May, and a rainy season from mid-June to mid-October, due to the African monsoon, which in summer moves northward; hence, the rainfall is more abundant in the south, where it goes from 600 to 1,500 millimeters per year, while in the north-central, which is part of the Sahel, the annual rainfall is lower than 600 mm.

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Senegal is a multilingual country – Ethnologue lists 36 languages. Of those, Wolof is the most widely spoken.

French, which was inherited from the colonial era, is the official language of Senegal. It is used by the administration and understood by about 15–20% of all males and about 1–2% of all women.[1] Senegal is a member State of the OIF (Organisation internationale de la Francophonie). A Senegalese, Abdou Diouf, has held the position of Executive Secretary of the OIC between 2003 and 2014.

Several of the Senegalese languages have the status of "national languages": Balanta-Ganja, Hassaniyya, Jola-Fonyi, Mandinka, Mandjak, Mankanya, Noon (Serer-Noon), Pulaar, Serer, Soninke, and Wolof.

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Senegal covers a land area of almost 197,000 square kilometres (76,000 sq mi) and has an estimated population of about 13 million. The climate is Sahelian, but there is a rainy season.

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Most of the country is flat with rolling plains rising to foothills in southeast. With an area of 196,722 km² the country is about 1.5 times the size of Greece or slightly smaller than the U.S. state of South Dakota. There are five distinctive regions: the coastal region, the Senegal River Valley, the Ferlo Desert in the north with over one-third of the country's total area, the Eastern Region, once part of the Ghana Empire, and the Casamance, the strip south of the Gambia.

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Dakar (English pronunciation: /dɑːˈkɑːr, ˈdækər/;[5][6] French: [da.kaʁ])[7] is the capital and largest city of Senegal.

It is located on the Cap-Vert Peninsula on the Atlantic coast and is the westernmost city in the Old World and on the African mainland. Its position, on the western edge of Africa, is an advantageous departure point for trans-Atlantic and European trade; this fact aided its growth into a major regional port.

According to 31 December 2005 official estimates, the city of Dakar proper has a population of 1,030,594, whereas the population of the Dakar metropolitan area is estimated at 2.45 million people.[8]

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The flag of Senegal (French: le drapeau du Sénégal) is a tricolour consisting of three vertical green, yellow and red bands charged with a five -pointed green star at the centre.