# Somali bands: Waaberi, Iftin, Shareero, Dur-Dur, Waayaha Cusub and others > Somali bands and music groups from the 1950s to today: Walaalo Hargeisa, Waaberi, Iftin, Horseed, Halgan, Onkod, Shareero, Dur-Dur Band, Waayaha Cusub, and reissues of their tapes. Source page: https://calankii.com/en/society/somali-bands/ Last checked: 2026-11-12 Publisher: Calankii (https://calankii.com) ## Bands as theatre companies In Somali performing arts, music and drama go together, so a theatre company is called a "band". The big bands of the 1970s and 1980s each belonged to a state body ([National Theatre of Somalia, Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Theatre_of_Somalia)). ## Walaalo Hargeisa (1950s) In the mid-1950s Abdullahi Qarshe and Hussein Aw Farah founded the Walaalo Hargeisa (Hargeisa Brothers) band. Qarshe was the first Somali to sing while playing the oud, and the band added flute, violin and tambourine ([Music In Africa](https://www.musicinafrica.net/node/25169)). Radio Hargeisa was its stage ([Geeska, 2025](https://www.geeska.com/en/radio-hargeisa-and-rise-somali-modern-music)). ## Waaberi Waaberi ("sunrise") grew out of the Radio Artists Association and was backed by the government as part of the National Theatre. Wikipedia says it took the name Waaberi after the 1969 coup, and that it was formed by joining the Radio Mogadishu band with the army's General Da'ud band ([Waaberi, Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waaberi); [National Theatre of Somalia, Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Theatre_of_Somalia)). Its artists included Magool, [Saado Cali](/en/people/saado-ali-warsame/), [Xasan Aadan Samatar](/en/people/hasan-adan-samatar/), [Ali Feiruz](/en/people/ali-feiruz/), Abdullahi Qarshe, [Maryam Mursal](/en/people/maryam-mursal/), [Hassan Sheikh Mumin](/en/people/hassan-sheikh-mumin/) and Abdi Ali "Bacalwaan". Waaberi toured Egypt, [Sudan](/en/diaspora/sudan/) and China and played FESTAC '77 in Lagos ([Music In Africa](https://www.musicinafrica.net/node/25169)). It continued as a private group into the 1990s, played the WOMAD festival in England in 1997, toured North America in 1998, and recorded an album with the Egyptian percussionist Hossam Ramzy ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waaberi); [AllMusic](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/p215468/biography)). ## Other state bands - **Iftin** belonged to the Ministry of Education and also trained school teachers in music ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Theatre_of_Somalia)). It went private in the early 1980s and played at the Al-Uruba hotel ([Music In Africa](https://www.musicinafrica.net/node/25169)). - **Horseed** existed before independence as Ex-bana Estro. - **Halgan**, **Onkod** and **Shareero** also performed at the National Theatre ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Theatre_of_Somalia)). ## Mogadishu's club bands Dur-Dur Band and Shareero mixed Somali song with funk, jazz, reggae and Arab music in the hotels of 1980s Mogadishu ([Music In Africa](https://www.musicinafrica.net/node/25169)). Dur-Dur's 1987 tape *Volume 5* was reissued in 2013, and its song "Gorof" went viral in 2025 ([Dur-Dur Band, Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dur-Dur_Band)). ## Tapes saved and reissued - **2017:** Ostinato Records released *Sweet As Broken Dates: Lost Somali Tapes from the Horn of Africa*, which was nominated for a Grammy ([Quartz](https://qz.com/africa/1142624/grammy-nominations-2018-ostinato-records-sweet-as-broken-dates-is-nominated-for-a-grammy)). - **2019:** Analog Africa released *Mogadisco: Dancing Mogadishu, Somalia 1972–1991* ([Dur-Dur Band, Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dur-Dur_Band)). ## Waayaha Cusub Waayaha Cusub ("The New Era") is a collective led by the singer Falis Abdi Mohamud. Its songs spoke against al-Shabaab, and one member, Shine Akhyar, was shot and wounded in Nairobi in 2007 by suspected militants. In 2013 it organised the Reconciliation Music Festival in Mogadishu, the first international music festival in the capital since the civil war began. In October 2014 the band sought asylum in the Netherlands after Kenyan officials took its members' refugee cards as they left Nairobi for a peace concert in Amsterdam ([BBC News, 14 October 2014](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-29615157); [Waayaha Cusub, Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waayaha_Cusub)). ## Read more - [Somali music](/en/society/somali-music/) - [Dur-Dur Band](/en/society/dur-dur-band/) - [National Theatre of Somalia](/en/society/national-theatre-of-somalia/) - [Magool](/en/people/magool/) - [Abdullahi Qarshe](/en/people/abdullahi-qarshe/) --- I want to help with this: email hello@calankii.com. Fix this page: email hello@calankii.com with the page link and your source.