| Aziza Brahim عزيزة ابراهيم |
|
|---|---|
| Born |
June 9, 1976 Sahrawi refugee camps, Tindouf, Algeria |
| Genres | Folk music, roots music |
| Occupations | Musician, songwriter |
| Instruments | Vocalist |
| Labels | Reaktion |
| Associated acts | Leyoad, Nayim Alal, Yayabo, Gulili Mankoo, Oreka Tx |
| Website | http://aziza-brahim.blogspot.com |
| Notable instruments | |
| Tbal | |
Aziza Brahim (Arabic: مريم حسن, born June 9, 1976), is a Sahrawi singer and writer of lyrics.
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She was born in 1976 in the Sahrawi refugee camps, where her mother had settled in late 1975, fleeing from the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara. Her father remained in El Aaiun, where he died, and due to the conflict, she had never seen him.
At the age of 11, she received scholarships to study in Cuba, as many Sahrawi students at the time. She wanted to study music, but was rejected. She left school and returned to the refugee camps in 1995, pursueing her musical career.[1] Since 2000 she resides in Spain.
In 1995, she won the "1st National Song Contest", in the Culture festival of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. She joined then the "National Sahrawi Music Group", touring Mauritania and Algeria.[2] In 1998 she contributed with two songs to the v.v.a.a. album "A pesar de las heridas". That year she toured Europe with the Sahrawi group Leyoad, visiting Spain, France and Germany. In 1999 she went again to the refugee camps, recording a session for the Sahrawi National Radio with the Touareg music group of Tamanrasset. Between 2001 and 2003, she toured again in Spain, France and Germany with Layoad. In 2005, she collaborated with the Spanish latin jazz band Yayabo. In 2007 she joined the group Gulili Mankoo, composed of musicians from Western Sahara and Senegal, mixing their respective traditional music with blues and rock. In 2008 she released her first solo work, the EP "Mi Canto". In 2009 she collaborated on a song of the v.v.a.a. rap EP "Interrapcion - Crisol 09", and one song from her EP was featured in the compilation album "Listen To The Banned".[3] Since 2009, Aziza Brahim is touring Spain and France with the Basque txalaparta group Oreka Tx, in the "Nömadak Tx en directo" tour.
In 2009, she was nominated for the Freedom to Create Prize, that awards the power of art to fight oppression, break down stereotypes and build trust in societies, although she did not win it.
Some of the lyrics of her songs are poems that she had heard from her grandmother El-Jadra Mint Mabruk in the Sahrawi refugee camps[4]