Bab L’ Bluz are reclaiming the blues for North Africa. Fronted by an African-Moroccan woman in a traditionally male role, the band are devoted to a revolution in attitude which dovetails with Morocco’s ‘nayda’ youth movement – a new wave of artists and musicians taking their cues from local heritage, singing words of freedom in the Moroccan-Arabic dialect of darija. Ancient and current, funky and rhythmic, buoyed by Arabic lyrics, soaring vocals and bass-heavy grooves, Nayda! seems to pulse from the heart of the Maghreb.
Let go. Fall in. Follow the spiral, and find your centre. Move and whirl, headbang and hair whip, into a place that is out there and deep within, an altered state where minds open, boundaries fall away and trust - in values, principles, ourselves - is rediscovered, made real.
Welcome, then, to the world of Swaken, the highly anticipated second album by French-Moroccan power quartet, Bab L' Bluz. Recorded at Real World Studios in Wiltshire, England, written partly in Morocco - the birthplace of frontwoman Yousra Mansour - and mostly across a world tour that took them from Adelaide, Barcelona and New York to Essaouira in Morocco, Lomé in Togo and Dougga in Tunisia. Eleven tracks that spark and pulse with kinetic, pedal-to-the-metal energy.
Concerts
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9 May 26
PALP Festival
Leukerbad, Switzerland -
21 May 26
L'Avant Seine
Colombes, France -
27 May 26
Espace 1789
Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine, France -
13 Jun 26
Un été à La Rayonne
Villeurbanne, France -
19 Jun 26
Grésilles en Fête
Saint-Apollinaire, France -
26 Jun 26
Festival Nuits Métis
Miramas, France -
28 Jun 26
GroundUP Music Festival Alberobello 2026
Provincia del Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, Italy -
4 Jul 26
WOMAD Glasgow 2026
Glasgow, United Kingdom -
9 Jul 26
Ghent Jazz Festival 2026
Gent, Belgium -
11 Jul 26
Sonic Pluriverse Festival 2026
Berlin, Germany -
28 Aug 26
Smugglers Festival 2026
Deal, United Kingdom -
5 Sep 26
End of the Road 2026
Salisbury, United Kingdom