Mdou Moctar to Perform at Sydney Opera House on 2023 Australian Tour

November 29, 2022

Mdou Moctar, the acclaimed guitarist from Niger, will perform at the Sydney Opera House for the first time in March 2023. Moctar will be in Australia for a number of festivals, including WOMADelaide, Golden Plains and Perth Festival. The Tuareg musician will play two consecutive shows in the Opera House’s intimate Utzon Room.

UPDATE 06/12/22: Mdou Moctar has announced all the details of his 2023 Australian tour. See below.

Mdou Moctar – ‘Afrique Victime’

Ben Marshall, head of contemporary music at the Sydney Opera House, expressed his enthusiasm for Moctar’s debut performances at the venue. “Mdou Moctar has emerged as one of the most exciting singular voices in guitar music, injecting Tuareg desert blues with the incandescent energy of psych rock, and his own innovative, self-taught flair,” Marshall said.

“Like friends and families gathering for his communal open-air shows in his native Niger, join us in the Utzon Room and Mdou transports audiences to another dimension, backed by the ascendant might of his full band.”

A self-taught guitarist, Moctar’s breakout record was 2013’s live recording Afelan, released via the US-based Sahel Sounds. Moctar’s two latest releases, 2019’s album Ilana (The Creator) and 2021’s Afrique Victime, have received international acclaim, with the latter coming out via prominent US indie label Matador.

Afrique Victime features Moctar backed by a full band, comprising bassist Mikey Coltun, guitarist Ahmoudou Madassane, and drummer Souleymane Ibrahim. The album was praised by Exclaim, who called it “peerless”, and The Observer, who described Moctar’s sounds as “extraordinary”.