RASM ALMASHAN

Rasm Almashan is a Polish-Yemeni singer, songwriter and composer whose voice and music bridges the sounds of Yemen, Africa and contemporary Europe.

Born in Kraków (Poland) and raised in Aden (Yemen), Rasm’s musical identity was formed at the crossroads of cultures. She grew up listening to Yemeni traditions and the songs of East African migrants — classmates and neighbours from Sudan, Kenya and Ethiopia — whose rhythms and melodies she absorbed as a child. Those early encounters remain central to her songwriting and improvisational approach.

Her debut solo album “YEMENIA” was a vivid, personal record inspired by memories of life in Yemen in the late 1980s and 1990s. The album is both a family tribute and a musical testimony to communities affected by conflict and displacement. “Yemenia” spent three months in the Top 20 of the World Music Charts Europe, and tracks from the album have been included on notable compilations celebrating world music.

Rasm often frames her songs as stories from the heart: she sings about poverty and the longings of people separated from their homeland, of the cost of war, and of the dignity she believes every community deserves. Rasm recalls moments from her childhood when, amid rising instability in Yemen, her family’s life — and the lives of neighbours — were upended. Those memories, personal and sometimes painful, inform songs that aim to connect listeners with human stories rather than headlines.

Personal figures and names appear in Rasm’s repertoire: the song “Ali Gingi” is one example of how individual stories and characters from her youth surface in her music, giving voice to people she remembers and the relationships that shaped her.