[2] Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam was born as Yewubdar Guèbrou in Addis Ababa, on 12 December 1923, to a wealthy Amhara family.

[3] Her father, Kentiba Gebru Desta, was a diplomat and the mayor of Gondar, a city in the Amhara region of Ethiopia.

[9] She was denied permission to attend the Royal Academy of Music by senior official members surrounding Emperor Selassie, who opposed her leaving Addis Ababa.

[10][11] She left the Addis Ababa convent and returned to her family where she composed music for the violin, piano and organ.

[16][17] Her funeral was held at the Kidane Mehret Ethiopian Orthodox Church in Jerusalem, on 31 March 2023, where a piano which had belonged to her was played in tribute.

[19] In 2017, BBC Radio 4 released an audio documentary on Emahoy's life entitled The Honky Tonk Nun.

For three decades, she lived a reclusive life with only rare performances including one at the Jewish Community Center in Washington, D.C., on 12 July 2008.

[27] Previously, Emahoy's musical compositions have been compared to the following composers and/or pianists: In 2019, an ad campaign entitled "Coming Home" for Amazon's Echo Auto and Echo Smart Speaker, created by advertising agency Wongdoody, featured a song by Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam titled "Homesickness".

"Evening Breeze" has also been featured in the 2023 film Yannick, which also includes her compositions entitled "Mad Man's Laughter", and "The Homeless Wanderer".