Since the 1940s, female singers had slowly become socially acceptable: Well-known singers were Um el Hassan el Shaygiya and most of all, Aisha al Falatiya, who as early as 1943 was the first woman to sing on Sudanese radio. Another outstanding female singer and political activist of the years before and after Sudan's independence in 1956 was Hawa al-Tagtaga, who left a long lasting influence for the "moral and cultural legitimacy she bestowed on younger generations of Sudanese women singers who follow her tradition", as critic Magdy El Gizouli put it.