Dua Saleh Of Earth and Wires Album Review Sudanese Music 2026
Dua Saleh ‘Of Earth and Wires’: What This Album Is About
Dua Saleh was born in Darfur, was displaced at age one, and later immigrated to the United States. Their family has lived through Sudan’s wars and genocides, with close family members lost to systemic violence in recent years. Of Earth and Wires comes from that reality. It is not an album that pretends grief does not exist. It holds grief and hope at the same time and refuses to let either one disappear.
Saleh described the album as being about what home means as a Sudanese person and as a global citizen living through international crises, warfare, and environmental disasters. That is a lot to carry into a piece of music. However, Of Earth and Wires carries it without collapsing under the weight.
For AfrobeatsGlobal, this is exactly the kind of North African story we want to tell. Dua Saleh is part of the broader African music conversation, and their work deserves the same attention as any other artist representing the continent’s creative power. Check out our previous blog on Rema, LISA & Anitta’s “Goals” for FIFA Hits 5.9M Views on Youtube in 2 days
The Sound and the Collaboration
Dua Saleh’s “Of Earth and Wires” moves between indie, R&B, electronic pop, flashes of Sudanese folk, UK dance, and baile funk. That range is intentional. Saleh is pulling from everything that has shaped them as a person and as an artist, and the result is a sound that does not sit neatly in any single box.
The album features three collaborations with indie folk pioneer Bon Iver. One of those is a song called “Flood,” written while Saleh was in Wales filming Sex Education during a period of intense personal grief after losing their grandmother. The song channels environmental imagery to process emotions that felt too large for ordinary language.
In addition, there is a collaboration with fellow Sudanese diasporic artist Gaidaa on a track called Anemic. The lyrics connect personal exhaustion with a political metaphor about Sudan bleeding out while the world looks away. It is striking and honest in a way that demands you sit with it.
Dua Saleh said that while making this album, the world was watching Sudan bleed, and nobody was truly locked in until it became a trend. That line alone explains why Of Earth and Wires is more than just an album. It is a document of what it means to carry a country inside you.
Sudanese Identity as Creative Fuel
One of the most powerful threads running through Of Earth and Wires is how Saleh uses Sudanese culture not as a backdrop but as a foundation. They have spoken about making an effort to learn their history and culture even while acknowledging that parts of who they are do not always fit neatly into traditional Sudanese expectations.
Being openly queer as a Sudanese person in the public eye is a complicated position to occupy. Sudan only lifted the death penalty for homosexuality in 2020. Saleh navigates that reality with clarity and creativity, turning the tension into art rather than silence.
Furthermore, Saleh’s politics run deep throughout the album. They engage with Afrofuturism, Afropessimism, the Green Belt movement, and the dangers of AI being used by militaristic regimes. However, none of it feels like a lecture. It feels like someone thinking out loud about the world they actually live in.
Why AfrobeatsGlobal Is Talking About This Album
African music is not just amapiano and Afrobeats from West Africa. It is also the sounds coming out of Sudan, Egypt, Kenya, Ethiopia, and every corner of this enormous continent. Dua Saleh represents a part of that story that does not always get the platform it deserves.
Of Earth and Wires is eleven tracks of genuine artistic courage. It is the kind of album that reminds you why African music has always been about more than entertainment. It has always been about survival, memory, and the insistence on joy even when joy is hard to find.
AfrobeatsGlobal is proud to spotlight this album and this artist. If you have not listened yet, today is the day. The African music conversation is bigger and richer than any single genre or region, and Dua Saleh is proof of that.
Of Earth and Wires is streaming now. Listen, share it with your people, and follow AfrobeatsGlobal for more stories about African music from every corner of the continent.
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