Desert blues pioneers Tinariwen announce Australian tour with WOMADelaide dates

Tuareg musical pioneers and Grammy Award-winning 'desert blues' band Tinariwentoday announce their return to Australia, with an initial seven-date tour across February and March 2027. Presented by Top Shelf, the initial tour announcement includes Melbourne, Sydney, Byron Bay, Hobart, Brisbane, alongside two shows at WOMADelaide - With more dates yet to be announced!

More than 45 years into their storied career, Tinariwen return to the foundations of their sound on tenth album Hoggar, released earlier this year via their own label Wedge. The album embraces their early years of acoustic songwriting and communal singing around the desert campfire, and carrying songs of protest, love and hope in a musical tradition that has endured for generations despite repeated attempts to suppress it. 

The album was recorded in Tamanrasset, capital of Algeria's Hoggar region and its namesake, marking the first time in years the band recorded close to home, with family and friends dropping by throughout the sessions. Hoggar also reunites Tinariwen with founding member Liya "Diarra" Ag Ablil for the first time in around two decades; Diarra, who left the group to found Terakaft, plays guitar across six of the album's tracks. The album also features some very special guests in Swedish singer-guitarist José González and Sudanese singer and oud player Sulafa Elyass.

"As with all Tinariwen albums, Hoggar vibrates with life force and there's a sense of an eroding cultural edifice being preserved. But there's hope here as well as a bruised remembrance of things past. In turning inward, back to their own natural successors, Tinariwen have made a fine tenth album befitting of that milestone."  - MOJO

"With Hoggar, the band embraces its role as elder statesmen, revisiting early songwriting traditions rooted in acoustic guitars and communal desert gatherings while welcoming a younger generation of collaborators poised to carry forward the music's enduring spirit of resilience and defiance." -  Glide Magazine

Fierce advocates for their people’s nomadic culture that exists in the desert borderlands between Mali and Algeria, Tinariwen’s bluesy, guitar-driven music has found global acclaim over the past two decades for its lively blend of Tamasheq-language politicism, syncopated rhythms and soaring melody.

Formed in 1979 in the Adrar des Ifoghas region of northern Mali, Tinariwen are pioneers of the assouf desert blues, and utilize their music to convey the struggles, exile and hopes of the Tuareg people - the nomadic people of the Sahara, many of whom came of age amid decades of rebellion and exile. Their sound blends blues, Saharan tradition and Arab influence into a musical identity that has left its mark on the international stage. The band rose to global prominence in the early 2000s with The Radio Tisdas Sessions, establishing themselves as the world's reference point for Tuareg blues.

Over the past 45 years Tinariwen have played more than 1,270 concerts and released ten albums, building a devoted audience across the globe. The band have been nominated for three Grammy Awards, winning in 2011 for Tassili, and have collaborated with artists including Kurt Vile, Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens), Micah Nelson, Jack White, Flea and Warren Ellis.

TINARIWEN — 2027 AUSTRALIAN TOUR

Friday 26 February - Odeon, Hobart, TAS
Tuesday 2 March - City Recital Hall, Sydney, NSW
Wednesday 3 March - The Tivoli, Brisbane, QLD
Thursday 4 March - The Northern, Byron Bay , NSW 
Sunday 7 & Monday 8 March - WOMADelaide, Adelaide, SA
Thursday 11 March - Northcote Theatre, Melbourne, VIC
Sunday 14 March - WOMAD NZ, Taranaki, New Zealand

TICKETS

Presale begins Monday 21 September
Pre-Sale - https://mailchi.mp/topshelf/cbnmvodkkt
General public on-sale Wednesday 23 September.