Kader Tarhanine in Sofia on December 2026 - Tuareg desert blues from the Sahara at Mixtape 5

Kader Tarhanine, one of the leading names of Tuareg desert blues, plays Sofia on December 3, 2026 at Mixtape 5. It is a genre that rarely comes to this region live, and Tarhanine is among the performers through whom it is most heard today.

He was born in 1989 in the village of Bordj El Mokhtar in Algeria, and his roots go back to the nomadic Tuareg of the Sahara, more precisely to the Ménaka region in Mali. He grew up in Tamanrasset in southern Algeria, in the middle of the musical tradition of the Sahel, the belt south of the Sahara. His real name is Kader Sabou, and he took his stage name from his own song „Tarhanine Tegla”, which means „My love has gone”.

That song is exactly what made him known. Recorded in 2010 as a simple love ballad with modest production, it became an anthem among the Tuareg all over the world. In 2015 Kader formed the group Afous D'Afous and went to Algeria to record the debut album „Tenere”. His music fuses North African rhythms with Western rock, and the lyrics are in Sahelian languages and Arabic. He has been described as the most-listened performer among young people across the Sahara.

The show starts at 8 pm, and tickets cost from 39.12 to 48.90 leva through bilet.bg, roughly 1,232 to 1,540 denars. This is one of the rare chances in the region to hear a Tuareg guitar live rather than on a recording.