Background At four years old, Ibrahim Ag Alhabib witnessed the execution of his father, a
Tuareg rebel, during a
1963 uprising in
Mali. After seeing a
western film in which a cowboy played a guitar, Ag Alhabib built his own guitar out of "an oil can, a stick and a
bicycle brake wire", according to future bandmate Abdallah Ag Alhousseyni. During his childhood, Ag Alhabib lived in
Algeria in refugee camps near
Bordj Badji Mokhtar and in the deserts around the southern city of
Tamanrasset, where he was given a guitar by an Algerian man, who also taught him how to play the Algerian style of Tergui music. Later, Ag Alhabib resided in Algeria and Libya with other Tuareg exiles. He acquired his first real
acoustic guitar in 1979. During this period he formed a band with Alhassane Ag Touhami and brothers Inteyeden and Liya Ag Ablil While the group had no official name, people began to call them Kel Tinariwen, which in the
Tamashek language translates as "The People of the Deserts" or "The Desert Boys". In 1980 Libyan ruler
Muammar al-Gaddafi put out a decree inviting all young Tuareg men who were living illegally in Libya to receive full military training. Gaddafi dreamed of forming a Saharan regiment, made up of young Tuareg fighters, to further his territorial ambitions in
Chad,
Niger, and elsewhere in the region. Ag Alhabib and his bandmates answered the call and received nine months of training. During such exercises, the band met additional Tuareg musicians and formed a loosely-organized collective to create songs about the issues facing the Tuareg people. In 1989 the collective left Libya and moved to Ag Alhabib's home country of Mali, where he returned to his home village of
Tessalit for the first time in 26 years. In
1990 the Tuareg people of Mali revolted against the government, with some of the musicians of the collective participating as rebel fighters, including
Iyad Ag Ghaly, who would later establish and lead the
Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM). After a peace agreement known as the
Tamanrasset Accords was reached in January 1991, the musicians left the rebel movement and devoted themselves to music full-time. In 1991, some members of Tinariwen went to
Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, to record a cassette at JBZ Studios and the album
Kel Tinariwen was released later that year. They played occasional gigs for far-flung Tuareg communities throughout the Sahara region, gaining word-of-mouth popularity among the Tuareg people.
1998–2009: International recognition In 1993, the Tuareg humanitarian
Manny Ansar became the group's manager. Ansar initially organized concerts for the collective in
Bamako, until realizing that there was international demand for
Tuareg music. Tinariwen was then organized as an official band with about a dozen named members. In 1998, Tinariwen came to the attention of the French world music ensemble
Lo'Jo and their manager Philippe Brix. That group traveled to a music festival in Bamako and met two members of the Tinariwen collective. In 1999, some members of Tinariwen traveled to France and performed with Lo'Jo under the name Azawad. In 2001, Ansar organized the inaugural
Festival au Désert in
Tin Essako, Mali, in collaboration with
Lo'Jo and the Belgian
Sfinks Festival, with Tinariwen headlining. It was Tinariwen's first recording to be released outside of northern Africa. Since 2001 Tinariwen have toured regularly in Europe, North America, Asia, and Australia. Also since 2001 the collective has added several younger Tuareg musicians who did not live through the military conflicts experienced by the older members but have contributed to the collective's multi-generational evolution. Newer members include bassist Eyadou Ag Leche, percussionist Said Ag Ayad, guitarist Elaga Ag Hamid, and guitarist Abdallah Ag Lamida. and their 2007 album
Aman Iman ("Water Is Life") were released worldwide and gained the notice of celebrity fans including
Carlos Santana,
Robert Plant,
Bono,
the Edge,
Thom Yorke,
Chris Martin,
Henry Rollins,
Brian Eno, and members of
TV on the Radio. In 2005, Tinariwen received a
BBC Award for World Music, and in 2008 they received Germany's prestigious Praetorius Music Prize. The band's 2009 album
Imidiwan: Companions was recorded in a mobile studio by Jean-Paul Romann in Tessalit. The band's UK debut was in Liverpool, at the
Africa Oye festival in 2004. The band also appeared at the
Glastonbury Festival in 2004, and again in 2009.
2010s in 2011 2024 In 2010, Tinariwen represented Algeria in the opening ceremony of the
2010 FIFA World Cup in
South Africa, and completed a lengthy American tour. The band released their fifth album
Tassili in 2011, featuring guest appearances by
Nels Cline,
The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, and
Tunde Adebimpe and
Kyp Malone of
TV on the Radio.
Ian Brennan produced the album. The album won the
Award for Best World Music Album at the
54th Grammy Awards. Their world tour in 2011 included performances at the
End of the Road Festival and
All Tomorrow's Parties. Tinariwen appeared on
The Colbert Report on 29 November 2011 with Adebimpe and Malone to play two songs from
Tassili. Group members Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, Alhassane Ag Touhami, and Eyadou Ag Leche participated in a translated interview with Colbert. They appeared at the January 2012
Festival au Désert, where they were joined on stage by
Bono and
Bassekou Kouyate. In early 2012 there was
another Tuareg rebellion in Tinariwen's home region of northern Mali, with the
National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad declaring independence and forming the short-lived unrecognized state
Azawad. Another party in the rebellion, the militant Islamist group
Ansar Dine, denounced the presence of popular music in the territory, and Tinariwen was targeted specifically during this campaign. During this period, Tinariwen had scheduled a tour of Australia and New Zealand, but Ibrahim Ag Alhabib and Elaga Al Hamid were not able to get out of Mali due to the conflict. Members of
Lo'Jo joined the rest of Tinariwen on stage at the
WOMADelaide festival. In a January 2013 confrontation with Ansar Dine militants, who had denounced Tinariwen and their music, Abdallah Ag Lamida was abducted while trying to save his guitars. A few weeks later, Tinariwen reported that Ag Lamida had been released and was "safe and free". During Ag Lamida's captivity, several other members of Tinariwen fled from the conflict and resettled temporarily in the southwestern United States to record their sixth album,
Emmaar, with guests including
Josh Klinghoffer,
Fats Kaplin,
Matt Sweeney, and
Saul Williams. Recording took place at
Joshua Tree National Park in California, which features a desert environment similar to that of Tinariwen's homeland.
Emmaar was released worldwide in 2014. Tinariwen then embarked on a tour of Europe and North America, but without group leader Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, who decided to remain in Mali to attend to family issues caused by the latest political crisis. Bassist Eyadou Ag Leche assumed the role of musical director, and a new singer/guitarist named Iyad Abderrahmane was recruited to perform Ag Alhabib's parts during the tour. In 2016, the group returned to Joshua Tree National Park to record parts of their seventh album,
Elwan, with additional recording in France and the remote settlement of
M'Hamid El Ghizlane in southern
Morocco (home of the
Festival Taragalte). The album was released in 2017 and featured guest appearances by
Matt Sweeney,
Kurt Vile,
Mark Lanegan, and
Alain Johannes. Tinariwen then embarked on an American tour with
Dengue Fever as support. The group toured Europe, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand through 2018, with another appearance at WOMADelaide. After the international tour, Tinariwen were unable to return to their home area in northern Mali due to ongoing sectarian violence and threats from Islamist militants. The group instead decamped in Morocco and embarked on a multi-month journey through
Western Sahara and
Mauritania, collaborating with local musicians at several stops along the way and writing songs while camped out in the desert. Their eighth album,
Amadjar, was recorded outdoors with mobile equipment near
Nouakchott, Mauritania and was released in 2019.
Amadjar featured guest appearances by
Noura Mint Seymali,
Micah Nelson,
Cass McCombs,
Stephen O'Malley, and
Warren Ellis.
2020s In 2022, Tinariwen began a project to reissue several of their earlier albums in new formats; the first such release was the album
Kel Tinariwen, which collects several of the group's early recordings from the 1990s. Their ninth album,
Amatssou, was produced by
Daniel Lanois and was released in May 2023. Another world tour included a performance at the
Glastonbury Festival. On 28 August 2024 the group performed at one of the
Late Night Proms at the
Royal Albert Hall in London. A compilation of early demos and rarities titled
Idrache (Traces of the Past) was released in November 2024. Their tenth album,
Hoggar, was released in March 2026. The album addresses a renewed round of violence in the group's home country of Mali, fueled by the paid mercenary organization
Wagner Group that was hired by various parties in a multi-sided religious and ethnic conflict. ==Musical style and influence==