page_title: Malouma
section_title: Awards and recognition
hierarchical_section_title: Malouma / Awards and recognition
caption_attribution_description: English: Malouma Meidah receiving the 2015 Mauritanian Woman of Courage Award
context_page_description: Malouma Mint El Meidah is a Mauritanian singer, songwriter and politician. Raised in the south-west of the country by parents versed in traditional Mauritanian music, she first performed when she was twelve, soon featuring in solo concerts. Her first song "Habibi Habeytou" harshly criticized the way in which women were treated by their husbands. Though an immediate success, it caused an outcry from the traditional ruling classes. After being forced into marriage while still a teenager, Malouma had to give up singing until 1986. She developed her own style combining traditional music with blues, jazz, and electro. Appearing on television with songs addressing highly controversial topics such as conjugal life, poverty and inequality, she was censored in Mauritania in the early 1990s but began to perform abroad by the end of the decade. After the ban was finally lifted, she relaunched her singing and recording career, gaining popularity, particularly among the younger generation. Her fourth album, Knou, includes lyrics expressing her views on human rights and women's place in society.
context_section_description: Malouma was selected in 2003 by the jury as one of the World Music Expo (WOMEX) showcase artists and two years later she was selected by BBC musicologist Charlie Gillett, for his 2005 selected compilation Favorite Sounds of the World CD. That same year, N'Diaye Cheikh, a Mauritanian filmmaker, produced a documentary about her, entitled Malouma, diva des sables (Malouma, Diva of the Sands) with Mosaic Films, which won Best Documentary at the Festival international du film de quartier (FIFQ; Dakar, Senegal) and a 2007 Prize of Distinction from Festival International de Programmes Audiovisuels (FIPA), held in Biarritz, France. She was a runner-up for the Middle East and North Africa in the 2008 BBC Radio 3 Awards for World Music. The griot-artist community of Mauritania has also acclaimed her by calling her the "first true composer in Mauritania".
  Malouma was decorated in 2013 as a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor by the French ambassador, Hervé Besancenot, acting on behalf of President Nicolas Sarkozy of France. On January 20, 2015, Malouma, Mauritania's "singer of the people and Senator", was honored by the American ambassador, Larry André, at a lunch attended by notable leaders, especially women, from the country's civil society. Presenting Malouma with the Mauritanian Woman of Courage award, the ambassador noted her "exceptional courage and leadership in advocating human rights, women, gender equality and harmony amongst the cultural traditions of Mauritania".
caption: Malouma Meidah receiving the 2015 Mauritanian Woman of Courage award
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