Aisha Musa Ahmad (musician)

Aisha Musa Ahmad (Arabic: عائشة موسى أحمد, romanized: ʾAyša Mūsā Aḥmad, b. 1905 – 24 February 1974), better known as Aisha al-Falatiya (also transliterated as Aisha El Falatia (Arabic: عائشة الفلاتية), was a Sudanese singer. Her early career was hindered by prejudice against female performers, but in 1942 she became the first woman to sing on Sudanese radio. Aisha's career continued into the 1960s, and she recorded over 150 songs in total, achieving popularity in both Sudan and Egypt.

Aisha's continued popularity eventually legitimised the presence of women on public radio, and in her later years she even performed duets with male singers. In total, she recorded over 150 songs during her career, mainly for Omdurman Radio, and remained active into the 1960s. She was best known for her love songs (referred to as tom-tom songs, and generally written by male poets), but some of her music was political in nature, and she was known as an advocate of women's rights, workers' rights, anti-colonialism, and Sudanese independence. Aisha lived in Omdurman until her death in 1974, but was also a frequent visitor to Egypt. She was married twice in her life: She got divorced from her first husband, Ibrahim Adbarawi, after two years without having a child. Subsequently, she married Jiddu Kabli with whom she had all her children.

During World War II, Aisha worked as a troop entertainer, singing for Sudanese soldiers active in the East African and North African Campaigns. In 1942, she became the first female Sudanese singer to perform on radio, singing a selection of her songs for Omdurman Radio (established by the British the previous year). She performed alongside her sister, Jidawwiya, who played the oud and had her own orchestra. The sisters' performance was well received by the station's listeners, but ثwas condemned by conservative commentators, and several male singers subsequently boycotted the station in protest. At one point, the enduring hostility she faced (both due to her gender and her ethnicity) led her to contemplate moving to Nigeria.

Aisha began to sing professionally at the age of fourteen, and soon achieved a degree of fame as a wedding singer. Her father disapproved of her activities, as female singers were stigmatised in Sudanese society at the time. He attempted to end her career by arranging her marriage, but she subsequently divorced her husband and continued working as a singer. Aisha's career only progressed in the late 1930s, when she was discovered by a representative of an Egyptian record company. She recorded several songs for the company in Cairo, and her music subsequently became popular in Sudanese coffeehouses. Her recordings were done under the name "Aisha al-Falatiya", a reference to her Fulani ancestry.