Aziza Brahim
Biography Aziza Brahim
Aziza Brahim
Voiced with deep passion and grace, Aziza Brahim’s music adeptly travels the expanse between her Western Saharan roots and Barcelona, the European cosmopolis where she now lives. Aziza is both a contemporary sonic poet and a prominent and eloquent spokesperson for the Saharawi people and their ongoing struggle for recognition and justice.Born and raised in the Saharawi refugee camps lining the frontier between Algeria and Western Sahara, Aziza’s life has been marked by both daunting hardship and inspired will. Fleeing from these camps and the regime of political oppression that followed Morocco’s 1975 invasion of Western Sahara, as a young teenager Aziza travelled to Cuba for her secondary school studies. There she experienced first hand the deep Cuban economic crisis of the 1990s and the subsequent denial of her request to pursue a university degree in music.
Music had been Aziza’s passion since she was a small girl and despite this setback she returned to the Saharawi camps in Algeria and began singing and playing in different musical ensembles, a process that continued when she moved to Spain in the year 2000. Aziza Brahim has been invited to some major international festivals: Womad (uk), Womadelaide (aus), Womad New-Zealand, Fusion (ger), Sziget (hun), Celtic Connections (uk), Espace Culturel Django Reinhardt (fr), Druga Godba (slo), Womex 2015, Royal Albert Hall London (uk), Plai Festival (rom), and many more…
