Tinariwen Details

Tinariwen (Tamasheq: ⵜⵏⵔⵓⵏ, with vowels ⵜⵉⵏⴰⵔⵉⵡⵉⵏ, pronounced tinariwen "deserts", plural of ténéré "desert") is a collective of Tuareg musicians from the Sahara Desert region of northern Mali. Considered a pioneer of desert blues, the group's guitar-driven style combines traditional Tuareg and African music with Western rock music. They have released 8 albums since their formation and have toured internationally.

The group's founding members created an unnamed musical group in 1979 while exiled in Tamanrasset, Algeria. Tinariwen formed as a musical collective while in military training in Libya, aiming to write songs about issues facing the Tuareg people. They returned to Mali in 1989, with some members joining as fighters in a Tuareg rebellion before dedicating themselves to music fulltime in 1991 after a peace accord was reached. Tinariwen first started to gain a following outside the Sahara region in 2001 with the release of the album The Radio Tisdas Sessions, and with performances at Festival au Désert in Mali and the Roskilde Festival in Denmark. Their popularity rose internationally with the release of the critically acclaimed album Aman Iman in 2007. Following the start of the Mali War in 2012, the group fled their home country and have since lived and recorded in exile due to threats again them from militant groups.

The group have been nominated Grammy Awards three times, and in 2012 Tassili won the award for Best World Music Album. NPR calls the group "music's true rebels", AllMusic deems the group's music "a grassroots voice of rebellion", and Slate calls the group "rock 'n' roll rebels whose rebellion, for once, wasn't just metaphorical".