Les Filles de Illighadad

One of the hottest new acts coming out of the Desert Blues tradition, Les Filles de Illighadad is a groundbreaking band founded by Fatou Seidi Ghali in Illighadad, a village in the Sahara Desert in Niger. Ghali, it is claimed, is the first Tuareg woman to play guitar professionally. The group, made up of three women and one man (Ghali’s brother), juxtaposes modern electric guitars with tende – a traditional Tuareg musical form typically performed by women, featuring drumming and chanting. The result is a timeless sound that The New Yorker describes as “mesmeric, almost prayer-like” and Pitchfork calls “hypnotic”.

The WOMEN’S VOICES series celebrates the role that female artists play in the preservation and promotion of their respective cultures and traditions.