There’s no denying it: Arab music owes its century-long legacy to iconic Arab divas. From the star of the East, Umm Kulthum to Warda Al-Jazairia, Asmahan and Fairuz—it’s these legendary singers who have shaped the region’s music golden era.
But despite a women-led history, the music industry hasn’t been able to strip away from its patriarchal attitudes. Female musicians today hardly get to share the spotlight with their male counterparts. Just take the region’s hip-hop scene as an example, it’s practically dominated by men.
Following in the footsteps of music streaming giant Spotify, who recently launched their initiative ‘Sawtik’ to celebrate three generations of Arab female musicians and boost the careers of young emerging talents in the field, we’ve curated our very own playlist of some of our favourite tracks by the Arab world’s emerging female artists.
