Rasha

Born in 1971 in Khartoum, Sudan, Rasha comes from a lineage steeped in intellectual, artistic, and musical pursuits, with all nineteen of her siblings active across creative fields. She handled production duties for theatre, television, and radio productions, devoting her free hours to vocal performance, songwriting, and formal musical study while aiming to establish a livelihood in the field. Recognizing the scant prospects for sustaining a professional career amid Sudan’s ongoing conflict, she relocated first to Cairo in 1991 and then to Spain, where several relatives—including a brother performing with Radio Tarifa—had already settled. After establishing herself in Madrid, she registered for university courses and maintained assorted daytime employment to meet living expenses. Nighttime hours were spent performing with local ensembles and refining her personal compositional concepts. Upon committing fully to music as a vocation, she issued Sundaniyat in 1997. The album drew on an array of Sudanese material to convey the homeland’s blend of Arabic and black African musical traditions, while incorporating outside elements such as jazzy saxophones, reggae, and Afro-Cuban rhythms, all framed by her wide-ranging and sensuous vocal delivery.