Tinariwen Win Uncut Music Award 2009

Finally, after much consideration, Uncut have announced that Tinariwen have won this years coveted Uncut Music Award.

Tinariwen's fourth album, Imidiwan: Companions, won over some very stiff competition, from Kings of Leon, Bob Dylan, Wilco, Animal Collective, Dirty Projectors, Grizzly Bear and The Low Anthem to be crowned the most inspirational and rewarding album of 2009.

Now in its second year, the Uncut Music Award has already gained a reputation as the most credible award in music. The artists' nationality, age and sales figures are completely irrelevant as a judging panel of industry figures come together to decide on the winner.

Tinariwen were unanimously chosen, by a distinguished judging panel of eleven key industry figures who included musicians Billy Bragg, Rachel Unthank and Robin Pecknold of last year's UMA winners, Fleet Foxes, broadcasters Mark Radcliff, Bob Harris, Danny Kelly and Christian O'Connell and, ex-EMI chief executive and chair of the BPI Tony Wadsworth, Stiff Records founder Dave Robinson and Mark Cooper, BBC Head Of Music Entertainment.

Tinariwen are a band of Tuareg musicians from the Sahara Desert region of northern Mali, whose mix of electric blues and Middle Eastern & African traditional drumming, has created a unique sound of their very own. Formed in 1979, they rose to prominence in the 1980s as the musical voice of a new political and social conscience in the southern Sahara. In the early 2000s, Tinariwen started to gain a following outside Africa, first in the world music community and then on the wider rock scene, through frequent tours and appearances at major festivals in Europe and the USA
page << 1 2 3 4 >>