Maryam Mursal

Maryam Mursal مريم مرسال
Birth name	Maryaam Muursaal
Born	January 1, 1950 Somalia
Genres	Somali music
Instruments	vocals, composer
Years active	1980s–present
Labels	Real World Records

Maryam Mursal (Somali: Maryaam Muursaal, Arabic: مريم مرسال‎) (born January 1, 1950) is a Somali composer and vocalist.

Biography

Mursal grew up in Somalia in a Muslim family with four daughters. As a teenager, she broke with tradition and began singing professionally in Mogadishu. She performed in nightclubs and her brand of music, featuring a mix of blues, soul, Somali and Arabic influences, and known as Somali jazz, became popular across the country. Performing primarily solo, she also collaborated with Waaberi, a 300-member music and dance troupe associated with the Somali National Theatre. Later, after having criticized Somalia's then ruling military government, she was banned from singing for two years, and made her living driving a taxi.

During the subsequent civil war in her homeland, Mursal and her five children moved to neighboring Djibouti, where she found asylum in the Danish embassy. It was this odyssey that provided the germ of her solo recording The Journey, with guitars, sequencers and back-up vocals from Peter Gabriel.

Mursal still lives abroad, now residing in Denmark. She has toured Europe with Waaberi and appeared with Nina Simone. Her work has been produced by Peter Gabriel's Real World record label.

Discography

• New Dawn
• The Journey

Quotes

• "Traditional music is very important to me but I was also listening to people like Ray Charles, The Beatles, everything."

• "We as artists are responsible if something wrong is taking place in our society. It's very important for us to speak up, even though we may have to do it with a double tongue. We have to speak out for our people."

• "I was always the first woman. I was the first woman singing Somali jazz, I was the first star, and I was the first to drive a taxi! I was the first to drive a lorry, and now I'm the first woman from Somalia to have an international record."^[1]

See also

• Waaberi

References

1. ^ Polly de Blank (July 8, 2005). "Somali star's road to Eden". London: BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4666121.stm. Retrieved 2005-07-08. 

External links

• Maryam Mursal Songs
• The Journey: Maryam Mursal
• Interview with Maryam Mursal on FindArticles.com
• Video interview with Maryam Mursal on Freemuse.org

Persondata
Name	Mursal, Maryam
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	January 1, 1950
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death