Mariam Hassan has during several decades articulated the Saharawi people's resistance and sufferings. 

Hassan was born into a family of musicians in 1958, in what was then called Spanish Sahara. IN 1975, when Moroco and Mauritania occupied Western Sahara, she and her family fled to the Saharawi refugee camps, where she first served as a nurse. Three of her brothers died during the war. 

For a number of years, she has travelled on tours to music festivas with her traditional and highly political blues. She has been a fundamentally important ambassador and source of inspiration for the Saharawi people. 

For more than ten years, she fought a private battle against cancer, and many of her songs cover that topic.