Rokia Traoré (born January 26, 1974) is a Victoires de la Musique award-winning Malian singer, songwriter and guitarist, born in Mali as a member of the Bambara ethnic group. Her father was a diplomat and she travelled widely in her youth. She visited such countries as Algeria, Saudi Arabia, France and Belgium and was exposed to a wide variety of influences. Rokia was the winner of the Best Artist category in the inaugural Songlines Music Awards (2009) – announced May 1, 2009 – the new ‘world music’ awards organised by the UK-based magazine, Songlines.She wrote the music for the 2011 Toni Morrison play Desdemona. In September 2012, she was featured in the campaign “30 Songs / 30 Days” to support Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, a multi-platform media project inspired by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn’s book