Global interest in MENA artists growing fast, says Spotify

Since it launched in the Middle East and North Africa towards the end of 2018, streams generated by acts from the region in other parts of the world have grown at an average rate of close to 40% every year, says Spotify. And it isn’t just the Arab diaspora – said to tally around 50 million – that’s listening to these artists.

According to Akshat Harbola, the managing director of Spotify for MENA, the most exported Arab acts can be divided into broad categories: icons such as Nancy Ajram and Fairuz from Lebanon, Amr Diab from Egypt and Khaled from Algeria; and newer acts, which can be split in those based in the region and making music that incorporates local sounds and speaks of local issues, and those born and raised abroad whose tunes tend to mix genres and languages.

Harbola attributes the consistent uptick in the consumption of their music internationally to three major reasons. “With the icons, there’s an element of connection to home that they provide,” he says.

For the more current stars, a rise in the number of cross-border collaborations has “unlocked interest” in the featured acts’ home markets. For instance, the new album by Moroccan rapper ElGrandeToto – 60% of whose streams are from outside his home country – includes guest spots from MCs such as Hamza from Belgium, Morad from Spain and singer Oxlade from Nigeria.

Similarly, back in 2020, Anthony Keyrouz from Lebanon teamed up with fellow electronic music producers Paradigm from Australia, for the English-language hit “Wake Me Up In Paris”.

Thirdly, says Harbola, it’s the proliferation of international tours by Arab artists through which their music is being exposed to foreign audiences. For example, Egyptian rapper Wegz – the second most-played musician within MENA after ElGrandeToto – recently toured the US, while Saudi-Ecuadorian singer Mishaal Tamer supported OneRepublic on their European tour.

Another more unpredictable factor is online virality, which has led to some Arab up-and-comers finding fame. Falling into this lot is Palestinian-Jordanian artist and former Spotify Fresh Finds playlistee Issam Alnajjar whose track “Hadal Ahbek” went viral on TikTok in many countries. That video platform, says Harbola “is a pretty big phenomenon in this region”, and “on social media, the appetite for global sounds, which aren’t necessarily coming from your most-known artists has just increased over the last few years”.