Tinariwen, the robed guitar slingers from the Sahara, became successful in the first decade of the 21st century thanks to their slinky desert-blues riffs. The music of the desert has had a fascination for Western musicians, with Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones travelling to Morocco to record the extraordinary traditional drummers and pipe players of Joujouka, and more recently Robert Plant and Jimmy Page collaborating with North African musicians on their reunion album No Quarter - Unledded. Meanwhile, Rai musicians from Algeria moved to France to shake up the French music scene. The programme follows the careers of Rai stars like Khaled and the Arab rocker Rachid Taha, and also the great female singers who have emerged from Islamic North Africa and from further east in Christian Ethiopia. Featuring Tinariwen, Khaled, Rachid Taha, Emmanuel Jal (Sudan), Souad Massi (Algeria), Maryam Mursal (Somalia), Amina (Tunisia), and Gigi and Aster Aweke from Ethiopia.