She and her young family hitched rides on trucks, rode on donkeys and walked - out of Mogadishu, the Somalian capital, across Kenya, through Ethiopia, recrossing Somalia again and eventually arriving in Djibouti where she was finally given asylum by the Danish embassy. I n Denmark she met up with the Danish arranger Soren Kjor Jensen. Jensen had come across Maryam's music when working in Somalia as a freelance photographer in 1986 and had recorded her extraordinary voice from a radio broadcast. Visiting a Somalian immigrant camp in Denmark he heard her singing to 300 fellow refugees and realized it was the same voice. Jensen brought Maryam to the attention of Peter Gabriel's Real World record label and, consequently, the label asked her to make two albums - one of traditional material and a second in a more contemporary vein.
M aryam is perfectly at ease working with a more contemporary approach.
She began singing professionally as a teenager in Mogadishu in 1966, the first woman in a deeply male-dominated Islamic society. But from her earliest years she also eagerly absorbed every influence she could find. M aryam Mursal's life and art have intertwined to produce a sound that is profoundly moving and totally unique. She may be a refugee living in exile but her extraordinary talent is certain to guarantee her a heartfelt welcome wherever she sings. O ne day Maryam hopes to return home to Somalia.