About
Noura Mint Seymali is a nationally beloved star and one of Mauritania’s foremost musical emissaries. Having begun her career at age 13 as a supporting vocalist with her legendary step-mother Dimi Mint Abba, Noura was reared in a transitive culture where sounds from across the Sahara, the Magreb, and West ...
World Music/Contemporary | World Music/Traditional
Contact
Mauritanian Blues; Noura Mint Seymali at The Calgary Folk Music Festival 7/25
"This lady shakes the rafters with her voice, and she outsings many of the accepted tropes about "desert blues" and music from around the Sahara.”
+++ NPR, Jan. 16th, 2014
"Noura Mint Seymali will change everything you think about Afropop. Her live act...has transfixed audiences throughout her own country and the international festival circuit with equal ecclesiastical power."
+++ WXPN, Jan. 10th, 2014
"[Noura Mint Seymali's] fusion was particular and selective…She only meets American music on her own terms."
+++ The New York Times. Jan 13th, 2014
Returning to North America for her most extensive tour yet in support of the forthcoming album, TZENNI (June 20, Glitterbeat), Noura Mint
Seymali is Mauritania's leading musical ambassador. With a contemporary, full-throttle take on Moorish griot music, the band's widely acclaimed live performances have quickly captivated audiences, exposing a vital, and seldom encountered space in the African musical topography. Touring with an agile, rock-like formation, Noura's undeniable vocal power is set aflight by the exploratory sound of her husband Jeiche Ould Chighaly's mesmerizing psych guitar lines and grounded by a declarative, funk driven rhythm section; Ousmane Touré (bass) & Matthew Tinari (drums).
As iggawen (or griot), Noura Mint Seymali and Jeiche Ould Chighaly come from two of Mauritania's greatest musical legacies and their current band's stage presence successfully recasts the frenzy and excitement of traditional weddings and ceremonies in Mauritania. Making a formidable debut on the international stage via performances at events like globalFEST (USA), Festival-au-Desert (Mali), Hayy Festival (Egypt), and Timitar (Morocco), Noura Mint Seymali is quite simply a show not to be missed!
On Tour
July 5th - CenterStage. New York, NY
July 9th - Cleveland Musuem. Cleveland, OH
July 11th - Old Town School of Folk. Chicago, IL
July 12th - Winnipeg Folk Festival. Winnipeg, Manitoba
July 14th - City of Chicago Millenium Park. Chicago, IL
July 15th - Riverside Concerts. Rochester, MN
July 18th - Vancouver Folk Festival. Vancouver, BC
July 22nd - The Triple Door. Seattle, WA
July 24th - The Skirball Cultural Center. Los Angeles,CA
July 25th - Calgary Folk Music Festival. Calgary, AB
July 30th - The Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Boston, MA
August 1st - Artisphere. Arlington, VA
August 2nd - Princeton, NJ
August 8th - Beloved Festival. Tidewater, OR