While heading to a remote filming spot, Mdou suddenly halted the car to chat with a man leading camels.
They swapped phone numbers. I had no clue that Mdou was secretly planning to gather 50 camels at the king of Agadez’s palace, near the famous mosque. We had talked about this before, but like many ideas, I thought it wouldn’t happen.
On our final day in Agadez, we arrived at the Sultan’s palace and set up our gear. Then we waited for hours. Would it actually happen? After what felt like forever, about 15-20 men on camels appeared. I didn’t count precisely because I was stunned that Mdou managed to arrange this—calling some random guy from the desert who then rallied a bunch of Tuaregs from their village hours away! Wow.
Fans were amazed by how everything came together so perfectly.
As we started playing music, Tuaregs in traditional attire joined in with hand drums and began dancing. Some friends even brought swords and performed a traditional dance right there as we played. None of this was planned at all!
