Dua Saleh

Saleh was born in Kassala, Sudan, to a family with Tunjur heritage, who are originally from Chad/Darfur. Saleh's family became refugees of the Second Sudanese Civil War in the 1990s. They fled Sudan when Saleh was five years old and moved several times, first to Eritrea, then to North Dakota, Maine, and Newark, New Jersey, before settling in the Rondo neighborhood of Saint Paul, Minnesota. Saleh attended Saint Paul Central High School and has cited an awareness of danger, systemic oppression, and resistance in their upbringing as a source for their interest in community organizing. After graduating from high school, Saleh studied at Augsburg University where they double-majored in sociology and gender, women's, and sexuality studies. During their time at Augsburg, they led a walkout from their former high school through the St. Paul Youth and Collegiate Branch of the NAACP in protest of the school-to-prison pipeline at Central. ==Career==

Saleh began writing poetry when they were four years old and performed at their first open mic in their senior year of high school. They used poetry to process experiences in their life and continued performing around the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area while in school at Augsburg. They have also performed as part of the Queer Voices series at Intermedia Arts. While studying at Augsburg and working full-time, Saleh began to find that poetry was not giving them "enough nurturing sustenance". Following the single's release, Minneapolis producer Psymun reached out to Saleh about working together; this surprised Saleh who was familiar with Psymun's work but thought he was based in the United Kingdom. "First Take" was well-received online and was followed by the release of Saleh's first Psymun-produced single, a performance at the Eaux Claires festival, and a collaboration with Florida rapper Chester Watson ("Void Interlude"). The five-track Nūr received positive reviews from Pitchfork and Robert Christgau and was supported by a music video release for the song "Warm Pants" that April. They released two more videos that year, for "Sugar Mama" in October and for their new single "Pretty Kitten" in December. By early 2020, Saleh was noted in the Minnesota Daily as having a national following. On May 30, 2020, Saleh released the single "body cast" to address police brutality. Proceeds from the song's download on Bandcamp are being donated to the Minneapolis-based justice organization, Black Visions Collective. The track includes audio clips from a 2019 viral video of Angela Whitehead standing up to police who illegally entered her home. The song's video lists the names of unarmed African Americans killed by the police. A concept album about two lovers meeting, breaking up, and meeting again while the world ends, Saleh cowrote the 11 tracks on the record with Emma DD and Josef Lamercier. In addition to writing and performing music and poetry, Saleh has also acted, including in 20% Theatre Company's November 2018 production of Waafrika 123 in Minneapolis. They returned for the fourth season, which was released in 2023. ==Musical style and influences==

{{Listen Saleh lived what they described as a "super-sheltered" childhood, and grew up listening mostly to older Sudanese music and Nancy Ajram. In high school, when they got a laptop, they listened to a great deal of jazz from the 1940s and later turned their attention to 1990s hip hop. Subsequently, Saleh "went through a year or two of finding as many queer artists as [they] could", citing Mykki Blanco, Le1f, and Kilo Kish among the artists during this period who "saved [their] life". They have also cited the music and lives of Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Marie Knight as influences, including naming their second EP after Tharpe. Saleh said that among other reasons for making music, Sudan, there's a lot of queer, trans and non-binary people who are closeted, so I try to put out as much content that's like, the gay and trans agenda, as possible!" On Rosetta, Saleh released the track "Smut", sung partially in Arabic, hoping "to break into the Sudani market" and connect with Sudanese listeners. Saleh's music has been categorized as rap, pop, and R&B. Christgau described Saleh's performance style on Nūr as rap-singing while Michelle Kim characterized their vocal performance style as alternating "between deliciously tactile rapping and spellbinding singing". Saleh also been noted for defying genre in their music. ==Personal life==

Saleh's first language was Arabic, which they said in 2017 was a "struggle to maintain" because of their immersion in English. In high school, they were elected vice president of Central's gay–straight alliance; when their mother discovered pamphlets for the organization in their backpack, she sent Saleh to Dugsi Academy, an Islamic charter school in Saint Paul. They came out as non-binary while in their second year at Augsburg but have said they have "always been on gay shit". They live in Minneapolis. ==Discography==

Studio album • I Should Call Them (2024) • Of Earth & Wires (2026) EPs • Nūr (2019) • Rosetta (2020) • Crossover (2021) ==References==