In 2017, Somali artist Nimco Happy performed the song Isii Nafta, (meaning "give me life"), for the first time on Somali television.
Now, five years later, the song has been picked up by famous faces on Tiktok and Instagram.
Artists like Cardi B have made dances to it and model Bella Hadid has shared the original video with Nimco Happy in their channels.
- Modern Somali music is very much synth, and autotune is common.
Most of the text is in Somali, but in the chorus many can relate, says Ayan Jamal, host of P3.
Typical Somali music
In the chorus, Nimco Happy sings in Somali, English, Swahili and Arabic.
The song has a strong love message - the English phrase in the chorus reads, for example, "I love you more than my life" ("I love you more than my life").
- It is quite typical for Somali music to bring up strong emotions.
These are quite big words to manifest love, says Ayan Jamal.
The attention has caused the music industry to act, and now the song can be streamed on Spotify and artists and musicians have made remix versions.
Nimco Happy has also received praise from superstar Drake, who has said about the song: "This song so hard".