Hargeisa, 9 June 2009 (Somalilandpress) — Maryan Mursal, a famous Somali music sensation is expected to arrive in Somaliland end of this week. Maryan has been active in the last Somaliland Independence celebrations on the 18th of May hosted in London where she organized a lavish event and released a new single in honor of Somaliland.
The Somali music star will take a break from her music shows in Europe to build a school named after Somaliland’s most celebrated composer and poet, Mohamed Ibrahim Warsame (Hadraawi) - Hadraawi School. Most of the money was raised through Somaliland’s Independence Celebration event in the United Kingdom which Maryan hosted.
Maryan has been living abroad since the fall of the last Somali government in 1991 and has been came the patriotic voice of Somali diasporas but never seized producing new albums unlike others who have been out of the scene. She is one of the internationally known singers who is famous of her African style songs, dress and dance.
While in Somaliland, she will be awarded by president Dahir Rayale because of her valuable contribution to Somaliland celebrations and her support for Somaliland’s cause [to gain full recognition]. She will be traveling with two of her sons who will be spending the summer in the country.
Maryan Mursal is a composer, powerful and dynamic female vocalist - she was born in 1950 in Eastern Mudug province of Somalia.
Maryan grew up in a Muslim family with four daughters. As a teenager, she broke tradition and began singing professionally in Mogadishu at the age of 16. She performed in night clubs and her brand of music, featuring a mix of blues, soul African and Arabic influences, and known as “Somali jazz”, became popular across the country. After criticizing the government in the 80s she was banned from public performances for two years.
Before her stunning voice could be heard in the west, Maryan was forced to spend seven months walking across the Horn of Africa with her five children as she fled the civil war in her native Somalia, desperate to escape the anarchy, death and starvation that was destroying her country. She and her young family hitched rides on trucks, rode on donkeys and walked - out of Mogadishu, the Somali capital, across Kenya, through Ethiopia, recrossing Somalia again and eventually arriving in Djibouti where she was finally given asylum by the Danish embassy.
Maryan currently resides in Denmark. She has toured Europe with Somali Waaberi band and appeared with Nina Simone. Her work has been produced by Peter Gabriel’s Real World record label.
This is her second trip to Somaliland, she was in Hargeisa in August 2002. Maryan is to perform at number of public concert shows and expected to draw large crowds.
You can watch her new single called “Waa Somaliland” (it’s Somaliland).
