This month, Palestinian artist Saint Levant headlined the debut edition of Mahrajan Festival. The all-day Arabic music festival held in Crystal Palace, London, was the first of its kind in the UK. Notably, Saint Levant performs predominantly in Arabic.
Saint Levant is part of a wider movement of artists in the SWANA region taking on the global music circuit. To pick another example, this year Lentekabinet festival in Amsterdam introduced a new festival stage dedicated to music from the SWANA region. The stats speak for themselves: in 2025, the IFPI’s Global Music Report tipped it as the second-largest-growing market, close behind Latin America.
Here are a few of the biggest acts to keep an eye on, and more than likely will soon be playing a festival stage near you.
Saint Levant
Born in Jerusalem to a Palestinian-Serbian father and French-Algerian mother, Saint Levant weaves his complex cultural identity into his artistry. He effortlessly switches between English, French, and Arabic in his songs, alongside darbuka rhythms and sweeping classical Arabic strings. He was born and spent his early years in the Gaza Strip, before relocating to Jordan, and is an outspoken critic of the Israeli offensive into Palestinian territory. His debut album Deira was named after his father’s hotel in Gaza, which is now in rubble. His follow-up album Love Letters was a huge cross-over hit, and he’s been selling out venues around the world ever since.
Elyanna
At the age of just 24, Elyanna is fast becoming one of the defining Arab acts of her era. The Palestinian-Chilean artist easily stands apart from the crowd, with her oversized hoop earrings and keffiyehs, and often with belly dancer scarves around her waist. Armed with a catalogue of catchy tunes such as earworm Ganeni, her determination to raise the profile of Arabic-language have helped her carve out a distinct niche on the international scene. In 2024, she became the first person to perform a set entirely in Arabic at Coachella Festival. This year, she featured on the FIFA World Cup soundtrack and performed at the opening ceremony in Toronto.
TUL8TE
The Egyptian singer and rapper TUL8TE eschews the more typically commercial pop of many of his peers, in favour of a sound drawing on jazz, flamenco and bossa nova. The enigmatic masked singer and rapper debuted in 2023, with the EP Maghool, and he has become a key figurehead breaking the mould of what’s expected from an Egyptian pop artist today. He credits Egyptian superstar Amr Diab as a major influence on his music; Diab helped popularise ‘Mediterranean music’ – an exchange of Greek, Spanish and Arabic music, which have historically always intermingled and inspired each other. He most recently released a jazz rework of his biggest tracks.
Watch his COLORS debut below.
Wegz
Rapper Wegz is credited with bringing Egyptian hip-hop into the mainstream, and his music is influenced by US rap music, shaabi folk music and the country’s underground dance music known as Mahraganat. Emerging from the working-class neighbourhoods post-Arab Spring, Mahraganat means ‘festival’ in Arabic and is a genre of electronic / EDM-influenced shaabi music. What has made Mahraganat controversial in the eyes of the Egyptian Musicians Syndicate, however, is the lyrics, often referencing drinking alcohol, smoking hashish, pre-marital relations and, crucially, criticism of the government. In 2023, it was reported that Wegz was banned from performing in Egypt because he hadn’t attended the compulsory syndicate meetings to sign an agreement to not include profanity in his lyrics (this conflict appears to have now been resolved). For all their dedication to upholding Egyptian culture and values, the syndicate seem much less concerned about the huge electronic music concerts being held on the doorstep of the pyramids…
Asayel
Hailing from Makkah, rapper and singer Asayel is a bold and candid new voice on the scene in Saudi Arabia. Her breakout track ‘Asliyah’, written in local Saudi dialect Hejazi, speaks up for female empowerment. In a slow spoken word tone, she raps: “He hit me and cried, but I beat him to the punch / My hair went grey, so I shaved it off.” In an interview with Arab News, she said: “This is stuff that really happened to me and stuff that I really want people to know… I want to do it [make music] to improve myself, but also encourage other girls to go out and to sing, to perform, to write, to rap… to build this female music community.” (See also her track breakdown on Scene Noise, a website I cannot recommend enough for SWANA music news and recommendations).
And a note on electronic music…
In the DJ world, there are so many artists I could name who champion Arabic language and regional music. But to name a few, it would be a crime not to start with Acid Arab; the duo continues to be enduringly popular, and the album Musique de France (2016) is one of the defining electronic albums of the last decade in France, a bold statement giving a voice to the cross-cultural melting pot of France’s North African diaspora.
Speaking of diaspora, German-Syrian duo Skhoon released their album Traces earlier this year. Traces is a meditation on the complex nature of immigrant identity and their difficult relationship with home (one of the duo, Ameen Khayer, was briefly imprisoned as a political activist at the start of the Syrian revolution, and the refrain of the track Hannen is based on a revolution chant), and is equally inspired by the hedonism of the German club scene.
British-Lebanese producer Sahliah is a respected tastemaker and curator based in London. She just wrapped up a residency at Phonox, Brixton, and works tirelessly to uplift emerging talent within her community.
Meanwhile, in Egypt, the producer ABADIR works with emerging artists as well as releasing on his own solo project. He also runs the platform ma3azef.com, which features a fascinating collection of thoroughly researched posts on unusual topics you’ll struggle to find elsewhere, such as ‘A Brief History of Women’s Voices in Iran’ and ‘Sudanese Political Song’.
And finally, Bahraini-born, Bristol-based duo Dar Disku released their debut album in 2023. Their music and their high-energy DJ sets are a celebration of their Arab heritage, taking classic Algerian Raï and 1970s Egyptian pop, re-imagined for the modern dance floor.
