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The Austin 100: Alsarah & The Nubatones

Nousha Salimi
/
Courtesy of the artist

Hometown:Brooklyn, New York

Genre:Afropop

Why We're Excited:Born in Sudan and based in Brooklyn, with other stops along the way, Alsarah is used to fusing the sounds and styles of disparate cultures. As leader of Alsarah & The Nubatones, she accurately describes her approach as "East African Retro-Pop" — a lavish, joyful, era-spanning sound full of Arabic-language reflections on identity and survival. It's modern and nostalgic, timeless and new.

SXSW Schedule:

  • March 15: Flamingo Cantina (515 E. 6th St.)
  • March 16: Palm Door On Sixth (508 E. 6th St.)
  • Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

    Stephen Thompson is a writer, editor and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist on All Songs Considered. Since 2010, Thompson has been a fixture on the NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created and developed with NPR correspondent Linda Holmes. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk Concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)