Composers are a new phenomenon in the traditional music of many countries because, until recently, there was no need to compose new tunes when traditional life already with its own vast repertoire of songs for every occasion. But times are changing fast and new generations often feel the need to write new songs to reflect new situations. This is especially true in many African countries, like Mauritania , the home of Malouma Mint Moktar Ould Meidah.
She was born in the 1960s into a family of famous griots from the harsh, desert region of Trarza. By the age of 15, Malouma was already an accomplished griot herself but as her adolescence progressed, musical curiosity prompted her to look beyond the traditions of her Moorish people. She began listening to Egyptian and North African music but also blues and pop from the US and Europe. On reaching adulthood she settled into the predictable lifestyle of an obedient wife, until the late 1980s when she began to perform again.Her new songs, with their contemporary modern feel, provoked a major revolution in Mauritanian music. Their themes of love, life, inequality, social justice, AIDS, illiteracy and the rights of women also challenged deeply ingrained taboos, a fact which initially sullied her name amongst a small clique of big- wigs, griots and decision makers. But her courage and all too obvious musical talents eventually won most people over to her cause, and she's now considered as one of Mauritania's greatest cultural treasures. Her recent album 'Dunya', on the Marabi label, is a veritable West African gumbo of traditional sounds, and modern bluesy licks, all expertly conceived, arranged and recorded.
