Friday, May 22, 2026 at the O2 Ritz Manchester
Sulafa Elyas – the support
Starting the evening in a half-full auditorium, the beautiful Sulafa Elyas takes the stage under a single overhead spotlight, offering a set of songs dedicated to Iran and the ongoing struggles in the Middle East. The Sudanese singer, dressed elegantly in a black dress adorned with sparkling details around the chest, projects her deep voice into the audience with a sense of peaceful grandeur.
Accompanied only by her pianist, who also performs beneath an intense beam of light, playing a synthesiser and occasionally triggering effects and backing vocals, the duo is enough to leave the audience completely captivated. Between songs, Elyas speaks calmly about war and the unjust suffering endured by people around the world. Before one particularly personal song, she asks for silence, almost as if leading a prayer for peace in the Middle East.
At times, she touches her face while singing, conveying pain and sorrow. She picks up a lute for a couple of songs, an instrument she plays only sparingly, but when she does, she produces beautiful, warm Eastern rhythms. Around me, people sway gently and move their hips in circles to the music. The two performers somehow manage to sound like a full orchestra, earning attentive applause and enthusiastic cheers after every song.
The final piece, Together, is dedicated to women. Elyas divides the audience into two groups and teaches them different vocal parts, turning the room into a choir. As she sings with the intensity of a yearning cry, she elevates the atmosphere into an overwhelming sense of freedom.
Everybody claps, fairly happy, at the end of her performance and the room feels very chilled and relaxed. Under the sound of a constant simple drum in the background, the auditorium starts really filling up on both floors. Seven stringed instruments await on stage beneath bright lights, waiting to be played, while everybody talks and gathers around.
All members of Tinariwen come out peacefully, take their positions and, without saying much, they begin the first tune, and then another one… all of them intertwine, creating a special aura throughout the theatre. Everybody cheers from the moment they appear and after every song there are whistles and shouts. Everybody is super respectful but with a very high enthusiasm for being there.
You can feel the earth of the place. Their songs are played faithfully, without surprises, but the live experience among people made them feel much more intense. The bassist kept a steady, driving rhythm, and the two drummers positioned at the back, slightly elevated above the rest, anchored the whole performance. Even before a note was played, their way of dressing already feels like an experience in itself. I can’t believe I managed to get a photo pass at the last minute, and I end up dancing and waving to their songs in front of them. It is almost like a cure for the soul.
I only discovered the band a couple of months ago, but there were people around me who had known them for years. Active as a collective since the late ’70s, they released their first studio album in the early ’90s. They were touring, presenting their latest album, released this March. Mixing songs from that record with older tunes, the whole hour-and-a-half gig flew by in a mist of calm and excitement.
All the members transmit this kind of energy, flow and trance with repetitive guitar strumming, deep calming voices and backing vocals. Considered the pioneers of desert blues, they offered us a sound that hypnotises young and old and makes it easy to believe you are walking through the sands of Africa, finding an oasis, getting lost between dunes and envisioning sliding snakes. Half way into the show, splash Elyas makes an appearance to sing with the rest of he band creating a beautiful strong feminine contrast to the voices of the band. The mic flicks mid performance, and sound technicians appear on and off to get it sorted.
Aesthetically, constant changing color lighting over them throughout the set, going from white, teal, pink and green, but a predominant warm yellow-orange made the experience very easy to enjoy and even translate you to the depths of the hot Sahara. Even though they don’t speak much throughout the performance, their communication goes beyond words, and the audience gets activated and excited during certain more upbeat songs. It is like coming out of the trance: suddenly everybody shouts and dances heavily for a few minutes to come back to a relaxing mind. The gig was a trip trough the dunes.
At the end the air is intense, relax and happy. Words that we don’t understand, rhythms that make us feel we can move the universe towards peace as we all clap together to their rhythms. This was present throughout the entire performance, and we all appreciated that they came back for an encore. The energy they left in the theatre was spectacular; everybody was high on the music, calm and excited.
words Mai Tane Hermosa
