African Women in Music
3 women in the archive worked for music. They came from different countries and different centuries, but each of them saw a wrong that others accepted and set out to change it. Read their stories to see how the same cause looked from very different lives.
3 women in the archive
ModernBrenda Fassie
South African pop icon known as 'MaBrrr' and the 'Madonna of the Townships.' Her hit 'Weekend Special' (1983) broke barriers as the first Black South African pop song to chart internationally. She was a voice of anti-apartheid resistance and lived openly in a conservative society.
ModernSade Adu
British-Nigerian singer-songwriter; lead singer of the band Sade. Grammy-winning artist known for 'Smooth Operator' and 'No Ordinary Love'; one of the most successful female artists in British music history.
ModernUmm Kulthum
Egyptian singer known as the Star of the East and the most famous Arab singer of the 20th century. Born around 1898 in a small Delta village, she rose to become a cultural icon whose concerts lasted four to six hours. Her funeral in 1975 drew four million mourners, a crowd larger than that for Nasser.