Bab L’ Bluz

WHEN speaks to Yousra Mansour at her home in Lyon, it’s the day after Bab L’ Bluz’s first live show since lockdown and she’s clearly still riding the high. “It was amazing,” she enthuses, of their al fresco set. “We really needed to play and so there was lots of energy.” As the band’s singer and lyricist, Mansour is the conductor– a mix of traditional gnawa music, funk-rock and psychedelic blues. The title is a reference to the push in her native Morocco for a more progressive youth culture and translates roughly from the Arabic dialect Darija as “waking up”. Despite that – and the fact that several songs address the exploitation of Africa’s people and resources by its own rulers – Bab L’ Bluz don’t consider themselves politically driven.