Amira Kheir
Amira Kheir
Fri 10 November 2023
Stage time / 8:00pm
Doors / 7:30pm
Celebrating the Jazz Clubs
Beyond Borders
Arts Canteen & Grand Junction present Amira Kheir
Sudanese singer Amira Kheir has been enchanting audiences around the world with her unique sound inspired by traditional music from her homeland Sudan and explorative of jazz, soul, rock, desert blues and experimental music.
Amira Kheir is a unique artist whose music is the merging point of diverse cultural, artistic, stylistic and historical streams, creating a new identity for her sound. To date, she has released three albums to great critical acclaim 'View From Somewhere’ (2011), 'Alsahraa' (2014), and 'Mystic Dance' (2018), released by historic African Music label Sterns Music. Her latest release 'Mystic Dance' is a powerful statement reflecting the artist's identity; "a tour de force that builds and expands on the rich promise of her 2014 release Alsahraa" (Songlines). Based in London and singing in Arabic, English and Italian, Amira has performed at some of the world's biggest festivals and stages, including Africa Festival Wurzburg (Germany), Womad Festival (UK), Festival Au Desert (Mali), WOW - Women of the World Festival (UK), EFG London Jazz Festival, London African Music Festival, and the London International Festival for Exploratory Music, as well as touring the Netherlands as part of the 'World Sessions' Tour by World Connections and touring internationally with her band.
Among her milestones, in 2022 she was nominated to participate in the Royal Opera House’ Engender Festival – an artistic collaboration between artists in different parts of the world, exploring themes of gender and identity. She was commissioned to write and perform an improvised live score for Ernst Lubitsch's seminal 1920s silent film 'Sumurun' by the Bird's Eye View Film Festival two years in a row, which she performed at the London British Film Institute and the Bristol Watershed. She was nominated for 'Best Artist’ at the 2019 Songlines Music Awards, as well as being nominated as one of “6 Amazing Jazz Artists from the Middle East and North Africa not to be missed” by Mideast Tunes, and selected as one of “13 African Artists that will mark the next Decade” by Rede Angola.
Amira Kheir is a unique artist whose music is the merging point of diverse cultural, artistic, stylistic and historical streams, creating a new identity for her sound. To date, she has released three albums to great critical acclaim 'View From Somewhere’ (2011), 'Alsahraa' (2014), and 'Mystic Dance' (2018), released by historic African Music label Sterns Music. Her latest release 'Mystic Dance' is a powerful statement reflecting the artist's identity; "a tour de force that builds and expands on the rich promise of her 2014 release Alsahraa" (Songlines). Based in London and singing in Arabic, English and Italian, Amira has performed at some of the world's biggest festivals and stages, including Africa Festival Wurzburg (Germany), Womad Festival (UK), Festival Au Desert (Mali), WOW - Women of the World Festival (UK), EFG London Jazz Festival, London African Music Festival, and the London International Festival for Exploratory Music, as well as touring the Netherlands as part of the 'World Sessions' Tour by World Connections and touring internationally with her band.
Among her milestones, in 2022 she was nominated to participate in the Royal Opera House’ Engender Festival – an artistic collaboration between artists in different parts of the world, exploring themes of gender and identity. She was commissioned to write and perform an improvised live score for Ernst Lubitsch's seminal 1920s silent film 'Sumurun' by the Bird's Eye View Film Festival two years in a row, which she performed at the London British Film Institute and the Bristol Watershed. She was nominated for 'Best Artist’ at the 2019 Songlines Music Awards, as well as being nominated as one of “6 Amazing Jazz Artists from the Middle East and North Africa not to be missed” by Mideast Tunes, and selected as one of “13 African Artists that will mark the next Decade” by Rede Angola.
