Dimi Mint Abba

Who is Dimi Mint Abba?

Dimi Mint Abba, born Loula Bint Siddaty Ould Abba in Tidjikja in 1958, became one of Mauritania's most celebrated musicians, rising from a family of iggawin griot musicians who preserved the country's oral and musical heritage; her father had been asked to help compose the Mauritanian national anthem, and she began performing from an early age. She first reached national radio audiences in 1976 and won international recognition the following year at the Umm Kulthum song contest in Tunis with "Sawt Elfan" ("Art's Plume"), a song whose refrain proclaimed that artistic expression enlightens the human spirit more powerfully than warfare. Her first international record release, on the World Circuit label, came on the recommendation of the Malian guitarist Ali Farka Touré, and she went on to tour widely across Africa, Europe, the United States, and Australia over three decades, composing enduring popular songs such as "Hailala" and "Koumba bay bay." She died on 4 June 2011 in Casablanca, Morocco, following a stage accident during a performance in Aioun ten days earlier; then-President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz described her death as a national loss.

Sources: Wikipedia, "Dimi Mint Abba" · World Music Network, "Mauritanian Sensations: Dimi Mint Abba and More" · AllMusic, "Dimi Mint Abba" biography