[4] As a lone child in a new country, Maanta turned to music for comfort, absorbing many genres including pop, rock, hip hop, R&B and house.

Maanta cites a growing appreciation with age for these roots of Somali music, as well as greater ease performing classical-based songs.

[7] Maanta has since worked with various other artists including Algerian Raï singer Abdelkader Saadoun, UK hip hop group the Choong Family, and Somali musicians Maryam Mursal and Ahmed 'Hudeydi' Ismail Hussein.

Realising this need and the need to promote his album, Aar Maanta set up a multinational band that reflected the diversity of his musical influences and his base city of London.

"[9] In September 2011, Maanta was forced to cancel a concert performance at the Cedar Cultural Centre in Minneapolis, after having already received approval for a visa following a long vetting process by U.S. immigration authorities.

According to the festival's organizers, the U.S. embassy in London unreasonably delayed processing the artist's visa because of his Muslim background, provenance and real middle name, Mohammed.

[10] Maanta similarly indicated in a 2013 interview with The Independent that when traveling abroad, he was routinely stopped and asked unusual questions by UK security officials in suits.