The music of the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

stems from the

Eastern Arabia Eastern Arabia () is a region stretched from Basra to Khasab along the Persian Gulf coast and included parts of modern-day Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia (Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia, Eastern Province), and the United Arab ...

music traditions. Distinctive

dance Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

songs from the area's

fishermen A fisherman or fisher is someone who captures fish and other animals from a body of water, or gathers shellfish. Worldwide, there are about 38 million commercial and subsistence fishers and fish farmers. Fishermen may be professional or recr ...

are also well-known. Liwa (or leiwah / leywah) is a type of music and dance performed mainly in communities which contain descendants of

Bantu peoples The Bantu peoples are an Indigenous peoples of Africa, indigenous ethnolinguistic grouping of approximately 400 distinct native Demographics of Africa, African List of ethnic groups of Africa, ethnic groups who speak Bantu languages. The language ...

from the

African Great Lakes The African Great Lakes (; ) are a series of lakes constituting the part of the Rift Valley lakes in and around the East African Rift. The series includes Lake Victoria, the second-largest freshwater lake in the world by area; Lake Tangan ...

region, and hybrid

Afro-Arab Afro-Arabs, African Arabs, or Black Arabs are Arabs who have predominantly or total Sub-Saharan African ancestry. These include primarily minority groups in the United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Lebanon, ...

rhythms such as the Sha'abi al-Emirati and Bandari remain the standard in both traditional and popular music in this historically cosmopolitan country. Performers in the country include Mohammed Al Muhairi (better known as Mehad Hamad), Ahlam Ali Al Shamsi, and Hussain Al Jasmi. The Emirati-

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

composer

Mohammed Fairouz Mohammed Fairouz (born November 1, 1985) is an American composer. He is one of the most frequently performed composers of his generation and has been described by Daniel J. Wakin of ''The New York Times'' as an "important new artistic voice". ...

has been commissioned to premiere his fifth symphony at the

Abu Dhabi Festival Abu Dhabi Festival is an annual cultural festival in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; established in 2004. The festival is presented by the Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation. The event has been held under the patronage of Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed ...

in 2020 In 2020 Emirati Composer

Ihab Darwish Ihab Darwish is an Emirati composer, Universal Music Artist, and Recording Academy voting member. Darwish has been playing music since the age of ten and grew up in a family that supported his passion for music and composing. He received his Bache ...

was commissioned by The Palm Fountain (Dubai, UAE) - world’s largest fountain by the Guinness Book of World Record, to compose an official musical theme “Aim For The Sky” as a sonic brand and its signature music. The composition pays homage to the UAE's culture as well as capture Dubai's cosmopolitanism and is performed regularly at The Palm Fountain at The Pointe, Dubai, from December 1, 2020. In 2021 Abu Dhabi Festival commissioned Emirati composer

, in collaboration with Emmy-winning composer

John Debney John Cardon Debney (born August 18, 1956) is an American composer and conductor of film, television, and video game scores. His work encompasses a variety of mediums and genres, including comedy, horror, science fiction, thriller, fantasy and ...

and Academy Award-winning composer

David Shire David Lee Shire (born July 3, 1937) is an American songwriter and composer of stage musicals, film and television scores. Among his best known works are the motion picture soundtracks to '' The Big Bus'', '' The Taking of Pelham One Two Three' ...

, to celebrate the historic opening of th
Abrahamic Family House in Abu Dhabi
Bringing together top international composers, musicians and vocal ensembles from Christian, Jewish and Muslim backgrounds, the Symphony of Three. Peace, love, tolerance celebrates unity and peace. The premiere took place on December 30, 2022, and is available online on YouTube. In June 2022,

became the first Emirati invited to be a voting member of the Grammy

Recording Academy National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Inc. (NARAS), doing business as The Recording Academy, is an American learned academy of musicians, producers, recording engineers, and other musical professionals. It is widely known for its Gramm ...

. Darwish is among 2,000 new voting members requested to join the world’s leading society of music professionals, whose mission is “to recognise excellence in the recording arts and sciences, cultivate the well-being of the music community, and ensure that music remains an indelible part of our culture”.

Original music in the UAE

The UAE houses a lively underground music scene consisting mostly of

expatriates An expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person who resides outside their native country. The term often refers to a professional, skilled worker, or student from an affluent country. However, it may also refer to retirees, artists and ...

. Concentrated in

Dubai Dubai (Help:IPA/English, /duːˈbaɪ/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''doo-BYE''; Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic: ; Emirati Arabic, Emirati Arabic: , Romanization of Arabic, romanized: Help:IPA/English, /diˈbej/) is the Lis ...

, the majority of local artists play

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

and

metal A metal () is a material that, when polished or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electrical resistivity and conductivity, electricity and thermal conductivity, heat relatively well. These properties are all associated wit ...

music. Some musicians also play alternative styles of music such as

ska Ska (; , ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a w ...

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

house A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air c ...

and

experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs whe ...

music. Yassin Alsalman, better known by his stage name Narcy, was born in Dubai in 1982. Canadian singer

Karl Wolf Carl Abou Samah (; born April 18, 1979), better known by his stage name Karl Wolf, is a Lebanese-Canadian musician based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Recently named “Father of A-Pop” Karl Wolf has been a singer, songwriter, and producer sin ...

lived in Dubai between the ages of three and seventeen, and has since returned to perform in the UAE. Wissam Khodur, better known as the Syrian/Lebanese MC

Eslam Jawaad Wissam Khodur (), better known as Eslam Jawaad (), is a rapper of Lebanese-Syrian origin. His debut album, '' The Mammoth Tusk'', was released in 2009. Career Jawaad moved to the United Kingdom in 2003 to pursue a career in Arabic hip-hop. Ori ...

, has been living in the UAE since 2011. In 2017 he appeared onstage with

Gorillaz Gorillaz are an English virtual band created by musician Damon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett in London, England in 1998. The band primarily consists of four fictional members: (vocals, keyboards), Murdoc Niccals (bass guitar), Noodle (gui ...

, having previously worked with bandleader

Damon Albarn Damon Albarn (, ; born 23 March 1968) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as the frontman, main vocalist, and lyricist of the rock band Blur (band), Blur and the co-creator and primary musical con ...

The Good, the Bad & the Queen The Good, the Bad & the Queen were an English art rock supergroup composed of singer Damon Albarn of Blur and Gorillaz, bassist Paul Simonon of the Clash, guitarist Simon Tong of the Verve, and drummer Tony Allen of Fela Kuti's band Africa ...

. Members of the psychedelic indie band

Flamingods Flamingods are a four-piece alternative rock band from London and Bahrain founded by Kamal Rasool in 2010. The band's other members are Karthik Poduval, Sam Rowe and Charles Prest (a fifth member, Craig Doporto, operated with the band from 2011-2 ...

lived for a time in the UAE, and founder Kamal Rasool credits Dubai as a pivotal incubator and inspiration behind 2016's third album ''Majesty''. In 2012 the UAE's only chain music retailer,

Virgin Megastores Virgin Megastores is an international entertainment retailing chain, founded in early 1976 by Richard Branson as a record shop on London's Oxford Street. In 1979 the company opened their first Megastore at the end of Oxford Street and Tottenh ...

, revealed a chart of the best-selling local acts to entertainment magazine Time Out Dubai. Based on total sales of all combined releases, the list was nominally topped by Karl Wolf, with second and third places going to soul-pop quartet Abri and rock group Juliana Down - two of the first homegrown acts to achieve widespread recognition in the Emirates. In 2015 this concept was repeated in The National, which compiled a list of Virgin's 20 best-selling local releases of the past five years, as well as breaking the chart down by genre. With Wolf this time deemed exempt, the list was topped by Juliana Down's 2011 album ''Empires'' (Abri's two albums were released earlier in 2008 and 2009), followed by house-pop duo SickAsSwans' debut ''These Words'' and Nigerian-born urban act Ash Hamman's self-titled debut. A year later The National updated the chart looking specifically at the best-selling releases of the past 12 months, revealing metal act Svengali to be the best-seller with debut ''Theory of Mind''. Among the best-known UAE acts internationally are metal band Nervecell. Other hard rock and metal acts from the UAE to tour internationally include Anuryzm, E.Y.E., Point of View and Jay Wud, who launched a fundraising campaign to finance sessions in Los Angeles for third album ''Transitions''. In 2012 hard rock quintet Point of View launched their debut album ''Revolutionize the Revolutionary'' with a concert alongside Ron 'Bumblefoot' Thal, then a member of

Guns N' Roses Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1985 as a merger of local bands L.A. Guns and Hollywood Rose. When they signed to Geffen Records in 1986, the band's "classic" line-up consisted of vocalist Axl R ...

, who appeared onstage performing songs by both bands. Thal later joined the band on a tour of India and appeared onstage in Abu Dhabi wearing a "PoV" t-shirt. Point of View's lead singer Nikhil Uzgare later branched out into

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, is primarily produced in Mumbai. The popular term Bollywood is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (former name of Mumbai) and "Cinema of the United States, Hollywood". The in ...

, recording a rock song as the theme to movie ''

Iraada ''Iraada'' () is a 1991 Bollywood film starring Shatrughan Sinha, Parveen Babi, Moon Moon Sen in lead roles and music by Kalyanji-Anandji. This was the last film of iconic actress Parveen Babi, before she retired from the film industry. Ca ...

''. Following the breakup of Abri, eponymous lead singer Hamdan Al-Abri released a self-titled EP before joining funk-rock band Bull Funk Zoo in 2012, alongside guitarist Assaad Lakkis. He later formed the popular cover band Abri & Funk Radius alongside jazz musicians Rony and Elie Afif, which released its first original music in 2017, debuting the single ''Sunny Daze'', and was the only UAE act invited to perform at the alternative music festival ''Wasla''. Lakkis went on to lead Bull Funk Zoo solo. In 2017 Al-Abri also unveiled new music as a member of trio Abri & the Dream Fleet, collaborating alongside producers Megadon Betamax and Adriano K on the album ''We Fly''. The latter had earlier produced a collection of South American folk songs and curated an accompanying remix disc featuring contributions from international producers, released in 2012 as ''A L.A.S.''. After a period of inactivity, in 2015 Juliana Down frontman Dia Hassan released a debut solo single ''What is Love?''. Juliana Down's former main songwriter and keyboardist Saleh Hamed began releasing music under the stage name "Dozen

including the album "After The Storm/Chasing The Muse" (originally titled "The Album") i
2021
Following the split of SickAwSwans, in the same year Clarita de Quiroz released her debut album ''Speak. Delete. Repeat''. Formed in 2013, house-pop duo

Hollaphonic Hollaphonic are a British electronic dance music production and DJ duo, consisting of Greg Stainer and Olly Wood. They were the first dance music duo to be signed to a major record label in the Middle East. Music career Their first single, “ ...

have received international attention in the press, recording fourth single ''Dangerous'' with guest vocals from British reality TV star Vince Kidd. Teenage pop singer

Esther Eden Esther Eden Fernandes (born 26 November 1997) is an Indian singer-songwriter based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. She rose to fame in 2014 when singer Jessie J invited her to perform at her concert at the Red Fest DXB. In 2016, as an independent ...

enjoyed significant local exposure after being handpicked by British star

Jessie J Jessica Ellen Cornish (born 27 March 1988), known professionally as Jessie J, is an English singer and songwriter. Born and raised in London, she began her career on stage, aged 11, with a role in the West End musical '' Whistle Down the Wind ...

to guest onstage at 2014's Redfest DXB festival. Eden was later signed by Universal Music MENA and performed as a solo artist at the same festival a year later. In 2015 hip-hop trio The Recipe launched a well-received comeback with the single ''Death to Get Here''. Behold The Locus released their second album 'Nations' in an online format during the summer of 2020.

Jazz and improvised music in the UAE

The UAE is also home to a small but productive collective of jazz musicians. Among the most celebrated is Lebanese pianist Tarek Yamani (whose third album ''Peninsular'' was premiered at the 2017

) and compatriots, drummer Rony Afif and his brother Elie Afif. Jordanian

oud The oud ( ; , ) is a Middle Eastern short-neck lute-type, pear-shaped, fretless stringed instrument (a chordophone in the Hornbostel–Sachs classification of instruments), usually with 11 strings grouped in six courses, but some models have ...

player and guitarist Kamal Musallam has released eight albums to date, fusing jazz and Arabic influences, and is consistently ranked among the UAE's bestselling acts. Musallam has performed with notable international musicians including

Sting Stimulator of interferon genes (STING), also known as transmembrane protein 173 (TMEM173) and MPYS/MITA/ERIS is a regulator protein that in humans is encoded by the STING1 gene. STING plays an important role in innate immunity. STING induces typ ...

Bobby McFerrin Robert Keith McFerrin Jr. (born March 11, 1950) is an American singer, songwriter, and conductor (music), conductor. His Vocal pedagogy, vocal techniques include singing fluidly but with quick and considerable jumps in Pitch (music), pitch—fo ...

Yo-Yo Ma Yo-Yo Ma (born October 7, 1955) is a French-born American Cello, cellist. Born to Chinese people, Chinese parents in Paris, he was regarded as a child prodigy there and began to study the cello with his father at age four. At the age of seven, ...

George Benson George Washington Benson (born March 22, 1943) is an American jazz fusion guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He began his professional career at the age of 19 as a jazz guitarist. A former child prodigy, Benson first came to prominence in the ...

and

Stanley Jordan Stanley Jordan (born July 31, 1959) is an American jazz guitarist noted for his playing technique, which involves tapping his fingers on the fretboard of the guitar with both hands. Music career Jordan was born in Chicago, Illinois, United St ...

and has recorded a full album with

Billy Cobham William Emanuel Cobham Jr. (born May 16, 1944) is a Panamanian–American jazz drummer who came to prominence in the late 1960s and early 1970s with trumpeter Miles Davis and then with the Mahavishnu Orchestra. He was inducted into the '' Mode ...

under his project ''EastMania''. For 2009 album ''Lulu'' (a tribute to UAE heritage) he collaborated with Emirati folk group Sokoor Al Magabeel, as well as with Hamdan Al Abri and

Rasha Rizk Rasha Rizk (; born 5 March 1976) is a Syrian singer-songwriter. She is best known for her work with the Syrian cartoon dubbing company, Venus Centre, and for singing the Arabic theme songs for popular cartoons/anime such as: Remi, Nobody's Girl ...

Notable releases

Below is an alphabetical list of UAE-based artists who have released original material commercially in the English language: *

Abri A rock shelter (also rockhouse, crepuscular cave, bluff shelter, or abri) is a shallow cave-like opening at the base of a bluff or cliff. In contrast to solutional caves (karst), which are often many miles long or wide, rock shelters are alm ...

- Albums: ''Sunchild'' (2008), ''Blank Notes'' (2009) *Abri & the Dream Fleet - Album: ''We Fly'' (2017) *Absolace - Albums: ''Resolve(d)'' (2010), ''Fractals'' (2012) *Adriano K - Album: ''A L.A.S.'' (2012) *ARS Trio - Album: ''Time'' (2015) *Beat Antenna - EP: ''Half Now, Half Later'' (2009) *Bee - Album: ''The Singles Era'' (2020) *Behold the Locus – Albums: ''Behold the Locus'' (2010), ''Nations'' (2020) *Benevolent – Album: ''The Covenant'' (2014) *Bull Funk Zoo - Albums: ''Bull Funk Zoo'' (2013), ''Dangerous Radio'' (2016) *Clarita de Quiroz - Album: ''Speak.Delete.Repeat'' (2015) *Craig Perry - Album: ''Jigsaw Repeat'' (2016) *DaVinci Park - Album: ''Overlooking Florence'' (2016) *DD Foxx – Album: ''Had to Be Me'' (2012) * Desert Heat - Album: ''When the Desert Speaks'' (2008) *Dwight Dickerson – Album: ''Glimpses'' (2011) *Elie Afif - Album: ''Giant Steps to Heaven'' (2011) *

- Album: ''Solitaire'' (2014) * E.Y.E. - Albums: ''Empty Yard Experiment'' (2011), ''Kallisti'' (2014) *Fat Randall - EP: ''Keep it Down'' (2016) *

- Album: ''Personal Space'' (2015), EP: ''Stand Up'' (2020) *

- Albums: ''Waves Of My Life'' (2018), ''Hekayat: Symphonic Tales'' (2021), ''Symphony of Three: Peace, Love, Tolerance'' (2022) *Jay Wud - Albums: ''New Blood'' (2010), ''False Utopia'' (2012), ''Transitions'' (2017) *Juliana Down - Albums: ''Cause and Affect'' (2006), ''Empires'' (2011) *Kamal Musallam - Albums: ''On a Jordan River's Side'' (2003), ''Out of my City'' (2008), ''Lulu'' (2009), ''Songs for Seung-eun'' (2011), ''The Best of Kamal Musallam 1999-2011'' (2012), ''Homemade in Rome'' (2014), ''World Peace Trio'' (2017), ''Handmade in Hummus Land'' (2020) *Kicksound - EP: ''Kicksound'' (2015) *Moh Flow - EP: ''Inspired'' (2014), Album: ''This is Yo(u)'' (2017) *Moonshine - EP: ''Moonshine'' (2010) *Muhaisnah Four - Album: ''A Memoir'' (2017) *

Naser Mestarihi Naser Mestarihi (Arabic: ناصر شاهر صالح المستريحي; born 14 October 1987) is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist (guitars, bass and vocals) based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Mestarihi is the first rock musician ...

- EP: ''

'' (2010), Albums: ''

1987 Events January * January 1 – Bolivia reintroduces the Boliviano currency. * January 2 – Chadian–Libyan conflict – Battle of Fada: The Military of Chad, Chadian army destroys a Libyan armoured brigade. * January 3 – Afghan leader ...

'' (2013), ''Praed Street'' (2016) *Nervecell - EP: ''Human Chaos'' (2004), Albums: ''Preaching Venom'' (2008), ''Psychogenocide'' (2011), ''Past, Present... Torture'' (2017) *Nikotin - Album: ''Panodrama'' (2014) *Palayan - Album: ''Metanoia'' (2017) *Point of View - Album: ''Revolutionize the Revolutionary'' (2012) *Rouba – Album: ''Mama’s Back'' (2013) * Sandwash - Album: ''Master Blaster Hole'' (2010) *

Sho? Sho? was a Dubai-based band, whose music could best be classified as a mixture of rock, alternative, punk and electronica. Made up of expatriates, they were active in the Dubai rock music scene for about eighteen months. They released one internet ...

- EP: ''I Don't Wanna Go'' (2010) *SickAsSwans - Album: ''These Words'' (2012) *Sun King - Album: ''Lotus'' (2008) *Svengali – EP: ''Unscathed'' (2014), Albums: ''Theory of Mind'' (2015), ''Sayonara'' (2020) * The Boxtones - Albums: ''In the Pockets of Clowns'' (2014), ''Home'' (2016) *The Gypsy Swing Project - Album: ''Paris-Dubai'' (2014) *Tim Hassall - Albums: ''Oh Restless Heart'' (2010), ''Gallatin'' (2014) *Universal Rogue - EP: ''Theory for all Seasons'' (2008) *Vandalye - EP: ''From the Beginning'' (2016) * Vin Sinners - Albums: ''An Element of Surprise'' (2011), ''A Mighty Black Box'' (2014)

Compilation albums

A number of compilation albums have been released independently, highlighting different genres of music from the UAE: *Ampulance Vol. 1 (2006), Vol. 2 (2007) and Vol. 3 (2009) - Punk and alternative music *Desert Lounge Vol. 1 (2005), Vol. 2 (2007), Vol. 3 (2009) and Vol. 4 (2011) - Ambient and chill-out music *Ma'ana Vol. 1 (2015) and Vol. 2 (2016) - Dance music and electronica *Metal Asylum Vol. 1 (2010) and Vol. 2 (2011) - Hard rock and heavy metal *United Assault (2015)Online review of United Assault compilation album (25.11.2015)
/ref> - Hardcore punk and extreme metal

References

*Badley, Bill. "Sounds of the Arabian Peninsula". 2000. In Broughton, Simon and Ellingham, Mark with McConnachie, James and Duane, Orla (Ed.), ''World Music, Vol. 1: Africa, Europe and the Middle East'', pp 351–354. Rough Guides Ltd, Penguin Books.
Maho M. Sebiane, « Le statut socio-économique de la pratique musicale aux Émirats arabes unis : la tradition du leiwah à Dubai », Chroniques yéménites, 14, Numéro 14, 2007
{{United Arab Emirates topics

Original music in the UAE

Jazz and improvised music in the UAE

Notable releases

Compilation albums

See also

References