In the 1960s, American pop stars became well known, which had a profound effect on Sudanese musicians like Osman Alamu and Ibrahim Awad, the latter becoming the first Sudanese musician to dance on stage.^[40] Under these influences, Sudanese popular music saw a further Westernisation and the introduction of electric guitars and brass instruments. Guitar music also came from the South of the country, and was played like the Congolese guitar styles. Congolese music like soukous, as well as Cuban Rumba, exerted a profound influence on Sudanese popular music.^[41]

Starting his career in the late 1950s, the Nubian singer, songwriter and instrumentalist Mohammed Wardi became one of Sudan’s first superstars. Despite his exile following the military coup in 1989, his popularity in Sudan and beyond kept rising until his return in 2002 and up to his death in 2012.^[42]

Singer-songwriter Sayed Khalifa was one of the first Sudanese musicians trained in formal music theory, which he acquired at the Arab Music Institute in Cairo during the early 1950s. Like other Sudanese singers, he performed in both Standard Arabic as well as in the Sudanese form of Arabic, thus appealing both to the educated elite and to the common people. Khalifa is known for his songs Ya Watani (My Homeland) and Izzayakum Keifinnakum (How are you?).^[43]

Performing from the late 1970s onward, a new popular singer was Mostafa Sid Ahmed. A teacher as a young man, he entered the College of Fine Arts and Music in Khartoum and composed his music to the lyrics of many well-known Sudanese poets like Azhari Mohamed Ali and Mahjoub Sharif, often expressing the longing for freedom and the struggle of the Sudanese people against dictatorship.^[44]

An important development in modern Sudanese music was introduced by the group Sharhabil and his band – formed by a group of friends from Omdurman – namely Sharhabil Ahmed^[41] and his fellow musicians Ali Nur Elgalil, Farghali Rahman, Kamal Hussain, Mahaddi Ali, Hassan Sirougy and Ahmed Dawood. Sharhabil’s wife and member of the band, Zakia Abdul Gassim Abu Bakr, was the first female guitarist in Sudan.^[45] They introduced modern rhythms relating to Western pop and soul music, using electric guitars, double bass, and jazz-like brass instruments, with an emphasis on the rhythm section. Their lyrics were also poetic and became very popular. Up to the late 2010s, Sharhabil’s band has been one of the leading names in Sudanese music, performing both at home as well as internationally. Another popular group of the late 1970s were called The Scorpions and Saif Abu Bakr.