Born to a musical family Dimi Mint Abba has enjoyed top billing in Mauritanian music since she won the International Oum Kalsoum Song Contest in Tunisia in 1977. Her winning song "Sawt Elfan" ("Art's Plume") argues that artists play a more important role than warriors in society. Dimi has one international release recorded in England in 1990 with husband Khalifa Ould Eide on guitar, vocals and tidinit, and his two daughters on percussion. Backed by tambourine, hand claps, and one deep, dry-sounding kettledrum (tabola), Dimi and Khalifa pluck and jangle their lutes and exchange vocal leads, telling stories as they shift among related musical modes. Catchy melodies and extended improvisation grace this severe, but beguiling music.

tside of a few appearances in Europe, Dimi apparently performs and records rarely.