“Les Filles’ music is mesmeric, almost prayer-like…it communicated something unambiguous. Whatever rhythm does to a human body—it was happening. By the end of the evening, people had abandoned their rickety folding chairs and little plastic cups of wine to boogie with abandon.”  – The New Yorker

One of the hottest new acts coming out of the Desert Blues tradition, Les Filles de Illighadad is a ground-breaking band founded by Fatou Seidi Ghali in Illighadad, a village in the Sahara Desert in Niger. Ghali is the first Tuareg woman to play guitar professionally. Les Filles perform a haunting amalgam of centuries old south Saharan “Desert Blues,” and traditional folk music. Despite years of war, exile, and imprisonment, fighting for a homeland in the Northern Sahara, the music of young Tuareg people, fueled and defined by high-voltage rock and roll guitar riffs, has made sizable inroads into the European pop scene while gaining traction in North America. The quartet includes Abdoulaye Madassane Alkila guitar/vocals, Alamnou Akirwini Nassir vocals/percussion, and Fitimata Ahmadelher vocals/guitar/percussion.