site.bta Tuareg Singer Omara "Bombino" Moctar to Perform in Sofia

Tuareg singer and songwriter Omara "Bombino" Moctar will perform a concert in Sofia together with American drummer Corey Wilhelm and Mauritanian bassist Yuba Dia. The event will take place at the Mixtape 5 club in Sofia on November 8, organizers Alarm Punk Jazz and Wrong Fest said.

Omara "Bombino" Moctar was born on January 1, 1980 in Tidene near the city of Agadez, the center of the Tuareg civilization in Niger. Following the outbreak of the Tuareg uprising in 1990, his family fled to Algeria.

Bombino’s international career began when he joined Tidawt, a band of exiles from Niger. Moctar was then first invited to a festival in the United States dedicated to Tuareg culture. American saxophonist Tim Rice invited him to participate in a special project dedicated to the music of the Rolling Stones, and Bombino ended up playing alongside Keith Richards and Charlie Watts in one of the songs.

Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys produced Bombino’s album Nomad (2013), released on Nonesuch Records. Later, the paths of Bombino and Tinariwen (the most famous Tuareg band in the world, the doyens of the so-called "desert blues") crossed for a series of concerts in Paris, thus drawing the world's attention to the problems of the Tuareg people in North Africa.

Bombino has also collaborated with Robert Plant, Gogol Bordello and Amadou & Mariam, performed on KEXP and Tiny Desk's live session formats, and his sixth studio album, Deran (2018), recorded in a studio owned by the King of Morocco, was nominated for a Grammy in the Best World Music Album category.