WOMAD Festival, review: Feeling the spirit

WOMAD was a weekend full of highlights, with several stand-out moments, writes Simon Broughton
World weekend: WOMAD was full of highlights
Mike Massaro
Simon Broughton16 November 2017

One weekend and 88 groups from Australia to Brazil, Syria to Zanzibar. Highlights were many, but here are four stand-outs for different reasons.

Alsarah is a rising star. She’s Sudanese-born, living in Brooklyn, with features like the famous bust of Nefertiti.

She describes the meeting of the Blue and White Nile in Khartoum as “the longest kiss in history” and that global vision of her hometown informs her sassy east African pop, which is intelligent and catchy.

Brazilian singer Seu Jorge played a tribute to David Bowie, who died in January last year. With his acoustic guitar, he sang solo in Portuguese and the audience joined in English. It was a memorable and moving meeting of the two cultures with Bowie as a bridge.

More challenging and visceral was Ifriqiyya Electrique, whose music comes out of the spiritual trance traditions of southern Tunisia. It would be challenging to perform these rituals live, so they use a film backing of the ceremonies, with three Tunisian banga musicians playing and singing on stage plus a punk-like backing of electric bass and guitar. It’s very loud and sometimes disturbing, but you come out feeling you’ve really participated in a ritual. It’s innovative and brave.

Finally, balafon player Mamadou Diabaté from Burkina Faso. The xylophone-like balafon is one of the glories of the region and Mamadou is a true master. With his band Percussion Mania, he’s a superb reminder of the thrilling power of west African music.

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