Doha, Qatar: Google Doodle today celebrates the memory of Asma Hamza, the first female Sudanese oud musician and songwriter.
In 17 July 1997, Asma Hamza won the Laylat al Qadr musical competition hosted in Sudan, becoming the first-ever woman in the country to be bestowed the honor.
Her achievement helped kickstart her music career after having gained the acknowledgement of her fellow male musicians in what was once a very male-dominated field in Sudan.
Born 1936 in Khartoum’s Halfayat al Mulook neighborhood, Hamza had struggled in the beginning with her music due to a vocal cord problem she was born with. She however, had an ear for beautiful notes, and found another way to express them; through whistling.
Upon hearing and being immensely impressed by her whistling, Hamza’s father bought her an Oud, a stringed instrument famous among Middle Eastern and North African nations.
Women’s musical work in Sudan was not socially encouraged at the time, and so she had to compose her first song in secret. Her father, a man unlike his time however, was incredibly supportive.
Hamza's greatest musical influences seemed to come from abroad, as she was a great admirer of Egypt's first lady of song and the most famous Arab musician of all time Oum Kalthoum.
In 1946, Hamza had become one of the first few fully trained female Oud musicians in the country. Eight years later, she produced her first musical work, putting melodies to a poem by Egyptian poet Ali Mahmoud Taha.
In 1982, she became a member of the Armed Forces’ School of Music, and a year later wrote her biggest hit after harmonizing and putting to melody Sudanese poet Saifeldin Al Disoogi’s poem “Al Zaman Al Tayib.”
Sudanese singer Soumaiya Hassan performance of the song in 1983 helped popularize it.
Asma Hamza worked with many of Sudan’s biggest names in music, and among such names were Abdel Karim Al Kabli and Mohammed Mirghani.
She passed away in 2018 after a long battle with illness.
