With Australia’s borders reopened, WOMADelaide 2023 has returned to the very international line-up we’re used to and there are plenty of acts from France and the Francophonie. You’ll find acts from France, Belgium, Morocco, Niger, Senegal, Tunisia, Lebanon, Canada, United States. Read on to find out who’s playing and when.
Bab L’ Bluz (Morocco/France)
READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH BAB L’ BLUZ HERE
A quartet formed in Marrakesh in 2018, Bab L’Bluz is inspired by Moroccan music traditions and combines rock and contemporary sounds with Moroccan pop. The result is soaring vocals, bass-heavy grooves and a psychedelic rock feel.
They’re performing Saturday (no more Saturday tickets available) and Monday. You can also see them in a workshop on Sunday where they will lead you through the different styles of Moroccan music, their own handmade instruments, and talk about the place of women in Moroccan society.
Compagnie Didier Théron (France)
Montpellier based Compagnie Didier Théron turns any space into a performance space with their roving performance “La Grande Phase” (The Big Phase), creating preposterous scenarios and hilarious poses. They do this while wearing colourful inflated suits that challenge expectations of how dancers bodies are supposed to look and invite us to look at our own.
You can see these roving performances from Compagnie Didier Théron each day and night of WOMADelaide 2023 with two performances on each of Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
Constantinople (Canada/Tunisia)
READ OUR 2023 INTERVIEW WITH KIYA TABASSIAN FROM CONSTANTINOPLE HERE AND OUR 2018 ONE HERE
For WOMADelaide 2023, the Constantinople ensemble is bringing with them Belgo-Tunisian singer Ghalia Benali, with whom they collaborated on a project (and album) named In the Footsteps of Rumi. The project puts the Arabic and Persian-language poetry and prose of Rumi to song.
They are performing on Friday and Sunday. On Saturday, Constantinople will be participating in a workshop showing you the traditional Arabic instruments that they play. On Monday, you can see them at Taste the World cooking up Kiya Tabassian’s children’s favourite dish, fesenjoon, a Persian stew of Arabic rice, meat and crushed nuts.
Galmae (France/South Korea)
A performance installation named c’est pas là, c’est par là / it’s not that way, it’s this way transforms a crowd of spectators into a problem-solving collective as they come together to unravel a tangled labyrinth of strings resembling a cat’s cradle. Audience members will become actors in the performance as they move over and under strands of string, rolling their own ball thus becoming more than mere individuals but a collective. Does one find the “we” at the end of the string?
Galmae’s performance installation will occur nightly at WOMADelaide 2023 (times change each day to check the schedule).
Gratte Ciel (France)
READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH GRATTE CIEL FROM THEIR LAST WOMAD APPEARANCE IN 2018 HERE
Performing nightly at WOMADelaide 2023, feathered angels will transform the night skies in this high-altitude spectacle. Mischievous angels will appear high above Botanic Park’s trees performing acrobatics and theatrics to joyous music before covering the audience in softly cascading feathers as they descend to play with them.
Gratte Ciel will perform “Place des Anges” nightly at WOMADelaide (at different times each night so check the schedule).
Guts (DJ) (France/Spain)
READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH GUTS HERE
French Hip-hop DJ and producer with a career of over 30 years, Ibiza-based, GUTS will close WOMADelaide with a DJ set, in which he will take you on a musical voyage through music to Colombia, Brazil, Ghana, Senegal, Nigeria, Cuba, Trinidad, and Cape Verde.
One performance only at WOMADelaide 2023: Monday night.
Madeleine Peyroux (USA)
READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH MADELEINE PEYROUX HERE
Madeleine Peyroux started singing as a busker on the streets of Paris and returns to Australia this month for the re-release of her acclaimed album Careless Love (which was originally released in 2004). Peyroux’s version of La Javanaise featured in the Oscar-winning film The Shape of Water and her accolades include the coveted BBC International Artist of the Year award.
There’s only one chance to see Madeleine Peyroux in Adelaide and that’s Monday at 6pm at WOMADelaide 2023.
Mdou Moctar (Niger)
Tuareg guitarist and songwriter Mdou Moctar hails from a desert village in rural Niger and is renewing contemporary Saharan music. Poetic meditations on love, religion women’s rights, inequality and exploitation by colonial powers are put to electric guitar, electric drums, field recordings and hypnotic rhythms.
Mdou Moctar will perform on Sunday night and Monday afternoon at WOMADelaide 2023.
San Salvador (France)
READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH SAN SALVADOR HERE
San Salvador are a 6 piece collective from the town of San Salvadour in the Corrèze department of central France that sing in the Occitan language. Expect traditional songs in the Occitan language but with a modern twist. This vocal sextet use only their hands, two drums and a tambourine as accompaniment. They describe their performances as “radical singing”.
San Salvador will perform two concerts at WOMADelaide 2023: Saturday and Sunday. They will also lead a workshop teaching participants different voice parts of a few traditional Occitan songs on Monday afternoon.
Tarabeat x MzRizk (Lebanon/Australia)
This collaboration is a celebration of the history and traditions of Middle East and North Africa through a collaboration on classic and contemporary Arabic music.
Lebanese musician-producer Camille Feghall is Tarabeat and draws on the expressive Tarab music from his region as well as Arabic scales and rhythms. MzRizk is one of Melbourne’s most respected house, disco and global music savants. Together they produce energetic live shows with the use of microtones, taqisms (improvisations) mixing live instruments like the qanun (Arabic harp), nay (Arabic flute) and tubbel (percussion) with modern sequencers and synthesizers.
Tarabeat x MzRizk will perform two shows at WOMADelaide 2023: Saturday afternoon and Sunday night.
Youssou N’Dour & Le Super Étoile de Dakar (Senegal)
READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH YOUSSOU N’DOUR AHEAD OF HIS SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE CONCERT IN 2018
Youssou N’Dour is one of the most celebrated African musicians of all time and has enjoyed a career of over 50 years. It was his 1994 collaboration with Neneh Cherry on the trilingual song “7 seconds” (she sings in English, and he in English, French, Wolof), which rocketed him to stardom. However, Youssou N’Dour has collaborated with many artists including Peter Gabriel, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen and Tracy Chapman.
Youssou N’Dour has won Grammys and UNESCO recognition for his music achievements and has made great contributions to the work of UNICEF and Amnesty International.
There’s only one chance to see Youssou N’Dour and Le Super Étoile de Dakar at WOMADelaide and that’s Monday night.
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Which acts are you most looking forward to seeing at WOMADelaide 2023?
KEY INFO FOR WOMADELAIDE 2023
WHAT: WOMADelaide festival (World of Music and Dance)
WHEN: Friday 10 March – Monday 13 March 2023
WHERE: Botanic Park, ADELAIDE
HOW: Purchase your tickets via the WOMADelaide website https://www.womadelaide.com.au/tickets
HOW MUCH: Tickets for Saturday are now sold out. You can still buy single day tickets for Friday, Sunday and Monday.
Friday
- adult $166
- concession $148
- youth (13 to 17) $103
- child (under 12 with an adult) free
Sunday
- adult $225
- concession $198
- youth (13 to 17) $137
- child (under 12 with an adult) free
Monday
- adult $225
- concession $198
- youth (13 to 17) $137
- child (under 12 with an adult) free
For other events with French and Francophone links happening in Australia this month, check out our What’s on in March article.
