When Asmâa Hamzaoui stepped on the stage of Gnaoua World Music Festival in Essaouira, Morocco in 2017, she was the first ever female gnawa musician to do so. Her distinctive voice and mastery of the bass lute ‘guembri’ make her a convincing malaam, or master musician, who has already conquered hearts and minds in her homeland and abroad. Spiritually charged gnawa has been a prerogative of men, but Asmâa Hamzaoui alredy picked up a guembri at the age of 6, and followed the path ever since – encouraged by her father Rachid Hamzaoui. Her band Bnat Timbouctout (Girls of Timbuktu) accompany her with metal castanets and singing to invoke ancient gnawa tradition and cast a spell on Ritmo’s audience.