WOMADelaide is thrilled to announce that living legends of gospel music and five-time Grammy Award winners, The Blind Boys of Alabama, will make their first ever appearance at the festival in Adelaide’s Botanic Park on 6 and 7 March 2020.

The Blind Boys of Alabama have come to define the sound of the American South across a career that spans seven decades.

Not just gospel singers borrowing old traditions, The Blind Boys of Alabama have redefined these traditions and almost single-handedly created a new gospel sound for the 21st Century demolishing barriers of race and genre to become one of the most acclaimed and celebrated groups in modern music.

Their career has seen the band perform at benefits for Dr Martin Luther King Jr and become part of the soundtrack to the Civil Rights movement, win five Grammy Awards, a Lifetime Achievement Grammy, be inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame and perform at the White House for three different presidents.

Hailed by The New Yorker as ‘legendary’ and by Rolling Stone as’ Gospel Titans’, The Blind Boys of Alabama’s live shows are roof-raising musical events that appeal to all audiences and has seen them tour every continent over their 75-year career.

THE BLIND BOYS OF ALABAMA JOIN THE PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED:

Aldous Harding (NZ)
As the World Tipped (UK)
Bill Callahan (USA)
The Cat Empire (AUS)
Catrin Finch & Seckou Keita. (Wales/Senegal)
Ezra Collective (UK)
Hiatus Kaiyote (AUS)
Kikagaku Moyo (Japan)
L. Subramaniam (India)
Liniker e os Caramelows (Brazil)
Mavis Staples (USA)
Sleaford Mods (UK)
Odette (Aus)
Orquesta Akokán (Cuba)
Rhiannon Giddens with Francesco Turrisi (USA/Italy)
Salif Keita (Mali)
Spinifex Gum (Aus)
Trio da Kali (Mali)
Tuuletar (Finland).