Asia Madani gets audiences grooving to Sudanese beats

CAIRO – 8 July 2017: Determined to familiarize the world with Sudanese culture through her art and music, Asia Madani performed in Room Art Space on Friday.

Asia Mousa, known as Asia Madani after the city she comes from, filled the room with traditional Sudanese beats that got everyone on their feet. The packed room was swaying to her music enjoying the upbeat African tunes.

"I came to Egypt in 2001. I was very invested in spreading Sudanese culture and music around the world," Madani said.

"Coming to Egypt was a very difficult journey because Egypt is considered the cultural and artistic hub for all Arab artists but I remained very persistent… I was very persistent to promote the Sudanese cultural music and give it a good name," she added.

Madani uses traditional Sudanese music instruments for her percussion like the dalooka, gara'a and tar which are integrated in different types of cultural music across Sudan such as zar, Nubian folk and South Sudanese folk.

Since her arrival to Egypt, Madani has performed in countless cultural hubs and events including the Cairo Opera House, Salah El-Din Citadel, El-Sawy Culture Wheel and the Ministry of Culture to name but a few.

She strives to spread her message to an even bigger audience by participating in cultural awareness initiatives such as the AfriCairo Project and the Nile Project.

AfriCairo focuses on how Africans living in Cairo communicate and mix with Egyptian society through art and music. Although Egypt is itself a country in Africa, its culture is vastly different from that of other Africans. The project was undertaken to raise awareness of African culture in Egypt.

The Nile Project toured across the United States, giving Madani the opportunity to expand her audience beyond Egypt and Africa. "The tour in the U.S. remains to be the most difficult tour I have done but the most rewarding one yet because I really felt that my message was communicated to the audience," Madani said.

Madani has an upcoming performance as part of the summer festival in the BA Arts Center in Alexandria on 3 August.