Arby left Timbuktu to join the artistic troupe of Gao, a town 400 km to the east.

Her father and her husband tried to make her give up her artistic career, but she resumed musical activity in the group Badema National after a break.

[6] In 2012, jihadists, with the help of Tuareg ex-mercenaries returning from Libya, invaded northern Mali and seized the Sahel.

"[7] Arby wrote and sang in the indigenous languages of the region: Songhai, Tamachek, Bambara and Arabic.

She sang about the rights of women to autonomy, training, happiness and fulfillment, and also against female genital mutilation.