Setona (ستونة) was born in Khartoum into a family coming from the Sudanese province of Kordofan. Starting a career as professional singer and musician was a challenge for Setona as a young woman even though one of her uncles was the founder of a so called "jazz band" in the fifties. But acting as a female musician in the public has never lost its connotation of indecency in Sudanesean society. Setona lived with her family in the Sudanese capital Khartoum in a quarter inhabitating people from different Central African countries as Nigeria, Zaire, Ethiopia and people from the southern parts of Sudan. Together with her husband Ahmed, who has been working as a teacher and collecting music all over the vast country, she draws from a broad spectrum of African rhythms and melodies. In her music Setona combines with ease influences of all those peoples living alongside the tarig as-sudan as an unique crossroad of cultures. One will find musical influences from areas being as too dispersed as East Africa (Taraab), Zaire (Soukous), Ghana (Highlife), Nigeria (JuJu, Fuji) and Sierra Leone (Palmwine music) and furthermore Uganda, Ethiopia, Tchad, Senegal, Nubia, Egypt and and and ... - apparently pan African music and truely Sudanese at the same time. She creates a musical mix that has never been done by any other Sudanesean artist. One shouldn't be surprised to find within Setona's repertoire songs from countries in Western and Eastern Africa she has never been to. But the greatest "hits" have been kept within the peoples' memories for centuries and as a result Setona sometimes performs in languages (or fragments of languages) she doesn't really understand. In all countries of the Orient women share a life sphere of its own which is filled up with lots of songs. Within this sphere that is hardly noticed by male visitors from abroad Setona learned how to work the typical Henna tattoes without whom no traditional wedding would be complete. And she was trained in specific African kinds of female healthcare as vapour-baths and burning incences. In Cairo today she is the so called "Queen of Henna". Since a couple of years Setona lives with her husband Ahmed in Cairo, where she has established herself as a wanted "wedding-consultant" for traditional wedding ceremonies. She takes care about the young women expecting their wedding, prepares special wedding food and teaches the old songs that women sing during the wedding ceremony - in this way she keeps alive tradition in a changing world. With her music that is released on this album for the first time Setona wants to evoke mutual understanding and togetherness of different cultures within her native country - and beyond. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.