Message in a bottle
March 15, 2023

Arabic artists going for a global breakthrough

Nooriyah / Wegz / Elyanna

You enjoyed our hummus. You enjoyed our shawarma. You enjoyed our falafel. Arab music is about to take over, you motherfuckers” - rapper, curator, and strategist Suhel Nafar says in the Pitchfork piece about Arabic music which is supposedly "on the brink of a global breakthrough". Palestinian-Chilean singer Elyanna is to become the first artist to sing her entire set in Arabic on the biggest stage at Coachella. Egyptian artist Wegz, the most-streamed Arab artist on Spotify across Southwest Asia and North Africa in 2022, has recently sold out London’s 2,000-capacity O2 Shepherds Bush Empire and became the first Egyptian artist to perform at the World Cup. The P mentions others - 25-year-old UK-based Palestinian-American artist Lana Lubany, the collective Laylit which hosts parties in New York, Montreal, and Washington D.C., and DJ Nooriyah, who grew up in Saudi Arabia and Japan.