Wardi was born on 19 July 1932 in a small village called Sawarda close to Wadi Halfa Northern Sudan. His mother, Batool Badri, died when he was an infant. His father, Osman Hassan Wardi, died when he was nine years old. He was brought up in a diverse and culturally rich background and developed an interest in poetry, literature, music and singing. Wardi traveled to Shendi to complete his education, and returned to Wadi Halfa as a secondary school teacher.
In 1953, Wardi went to Khartoum for the first time to attend a convention as a teaching representative for his area. He moved to Khartoum and started his career as a musical performer. In 1957, Omdurman Radio chose him to record and sing on national broadcast in an arena with singers such as Abdelaziz Mohamed Dauod, Hassan Atia, Ahmed Almustafa, Osman Hussaein and Ibrahim Awad. Wardi recorded 17 songs in his first year.
Wardi performed using a variety of instruments including the Nubian tanbur and sang in both Arabic and Nubian languages. He has been described as “Africa’s top singer”, with fans mainly in the Horn of Africa. His songs address topics such as romance, passion, Nubian folklore, heritage, revolution and patriotism with some of his political songs resulting in him being jailed. After the military coup in 1989, he left Sudan to voluntary exile in Cairo and Los Angeles. In 1990, Wardi played a concert for 250,000 Sudanese refugees at a refugee camp in Itang, Ethiopia. He returned to Sudan in May 2002.
In 2005, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Khartoum.

Source: wikipedia.org