pop culture in the arab world essay

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Pop culture in the Arab world

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Arab pop culture has been making waves globally for many years, from the catchy beats of Arabic music to the captivating storylines of Arabic cinema. It’s true that it can’t compete with American or Koren pop culture, but the momentum is there and there are numerous artists to support the phenomenon. It’s especially appreciated that Arab pop culture has been able to break through language and cultural barriers, to mark its impact seen in various forms of entertainment all over the world.

In today’s article, we’re exploring some of the most notorious Arab artists that support the pop culture movement, as well as the creations that enjoy international recognition. So, without further ado, let’s get you started on a guide to Arab pop culture. 

The Music Industry

One of the most significant contributions of Arab pop culture comes from the music industry. Arabic music is known for its rich melodies and rhythms and the use of traditional instruments such as the oud, qanun, and tabla. In recent years, Arab pop music has undergone a transformative process as it got blended with elements of electronic, hip-hop, and R&B. This unique fusion allowed Arabic music to reach new audiences and enjoy more popularity outside the Middle East.

One of the most successful Arab pop artists of all time is Lebanese singer Nancy Ajram . Her music has been widely popular in the Middle East and has gained a following worldwide. She reached the peak of her popularity through collaboration with international artists such as Ricky Martin and Cheb Khaled. Other popular Arab pop artists include Amr Diab and Tamer Hosny from Egypt, as well as Assi El Helani from Lebanon.

Since the borders between various arts are quite permissive, in many instances, Arab pop music has also had an impact on the film industry. Quite a few Arabic films turned to pop songs to build their soundtracks, and this has led to a win-win situation.  One example is the Egyptian film “El-Haram el-Rabe” (“The Rabe Shrine”), which featured the hit song “Ya Salam” by Lebanese singer Nancy Ajram.

The Movie Industry

Since we’ve mentioned the perfect blend between Arabic pop culture and the movie industry in the previous paragraph, it’s the perfect moment to take a close look at some of the films that became popular worldwide.

Arab cinema is also being noticed globally in recent years, with many films gaining recognition at international film festivals. One such film is “Capernaum”, directed by Lebanese filmmaker Nadine Labaki. The film tells the story of a young boy growing up in extreme poverty on the outskirts of Beirut. The project won numerous awards, the most prestigious being the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

The groundbreaking 2012 movie “ Wadjda ,” directed by Saudi Arabian filmmaker Haifaa Al-Mansour, tells the story of a young girl who dreams of owning a bicycle, even though this is seen as socially unacceptable in Saudi Arabia. Not only was it the first feature film to be shot entirely in Saudi Arabia, but it was also the first movie to be directed by a Saudi Arabian woman. The film earned rave reviews and was nominated for numerous awards, including a BAFTA for Best Foreign Language Film.

It is an impressive feat that progress is being made on such sensitive topics in the Arab world, in spite of the local culture often placing restrictions on women and certain industries, such as gambling. This is the very aim of arabwinners.com , which is dedicated to providing people in the region with the opportunity to enjoy online casinos and sports betting.

Fashion is Never Far Behind

Arab pop culture has also had an impact on the fashion industry. Traditional Arabic clothing, such as the abaya and hijab, has become increasingly popular in the West, with many designers incorporating these elements into their collections. Arab fashion designers have also gained recognition globally, with names such as Elie Saab and Zuhair Murad becoming household names in the fashion industry.

Why Exclude Food?

In addition to music, film, and fashion, Arab pop culture has also had an impact on the world of cuisine. Arabic cuisine, known for its rich flavors and use of spices, has become increasingly popular in recent years, with many restaurants serving Arabic dishes. The popularity of Arabic cuisine has also led to an increased demand for Arabic ingredients such as za’atar, sumac, and tahini.

Final Thoughts

Arab pop culture has also helped to break down stereotypes and promote cultural understanding. Arab artists and filmmakers have been able to showcase the beauty and diversity of Arab culture, challenging negative stereotypes and promoting a more nuanced understanding of the Arab world. This is especially important in a world where negative stereotypes of Arabs and Muslims are all too common.

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es popular elements into a unique version to call their own. Though this can be seen in a negative light for copying or taking western ideas, rather the Arab world sees these widespread fads as a way to put their own spin on a growing trend.

Where Shereen lacks, though, is in the comparisons themselves. In class, we’ve often talked about the degradation comparison has on the thing being compared, or as the saying goes, “Comparison is the thief of joy.” By describing an up

-and-coming television show devoted to spreading Islamic ideas through positive music videos, 4Shbab, as “dubbed Islamic MTV,” it takes away the element of individuality 4Shbab has. While these shows definitely take inspiration from successful American media, it should be noted that they, too, have unique Arab aspects that can’t be compared to MTV.

Additionally, Shereen goes on to media targeted for a younger crowd, comic books. The 99 are the shown as the first Islamic superheroes, and she describes them very well in regards to giving them a light of their own. Going on to explain that each of the 99 superheroes exemplifies the 99 attributes of Allah, El Feki doesn’t realize that even the title is in English. Still with Arabic under the larger numbers 99, it’s hard to create an individualistic product when another culture seemingly bleeds into the next. And again, the comparison of The 99 to Superman and Wonder Woman takes an element of hard-earned Arab uniqueness away in the slightest way.

And just when I thought Shereen had a lack of attention to the grave mistake of comparison among Arab and American pop culture, she used the term “Islamic cross-cultural hybridization.” This might have been her saving grace. In this description she states that Arab and American pop culture are seemingly a “mesh of civilizations.” Rather than her previous alluding to the stealing of ideas, this hybridization allows for an even exchange of ideas across cultures. In this way, “strands of different cultures are intertwined” is actually a trend common in the Arab world due to the Qur’anic belief that nations and tribes should learn from one another. While it may seem that Arab pop culture takes up successful American ideas, an understanding of Arab ideals is essential to distinguish their admiration yet unique twists on western pop culture.

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Q&A with Shereen El Feki: A glimpse of Arab society in a globalizing world

The TEDBlog recently followed up with TED Fellow Shereen El Feki about her experience attending TEDGlobal and some of the ideas that underlie her talk on pop culture in the Arab world . Shereen elaborates on what’s driving the “mesh of civilizations,” differences between Western and Arab cultures and how the Internet and economics contribute to the mesh.

How are you developing your work since TEDGlobal? Did you experience anything at TED that moved your work in a new direction, or perhaps reconfirmed your ideas?

TED was actually very interesting for me on a number of levels. Where do I begin? There was so much that spun out of TED for me. Certainly it was refreshing to meet people who were very interested and open-minded about the Arab region, and were very keen to interact. So, that’s hardly a surprise. The people at TED are very international and very outward looking. But certainly the level of enthusiasm was very welcome.

One of the most tangible outcomes to emerge from the meeting was the fact that I met a number of people from Saudi Arabia and we are now working together — Insha’Allah as we say, if God wills — put on a TEDx event in Saudi Arabia next year. So that was very exciting. These are some young, dynamic, enthusiastic, international Saudi men who were very keen to put on a really great TEDx event, so it’s a great pleasure to be able to work with them.

Another event which is, again, Insha’Allah , because it’s always difficult to organize a conference if you don’t have the sort of military precision of the TED operation (we have all these incredibly enthusiastic recruits.) The other thing we’re working on now is to put together a TEDx event in India next year, and that will actually focus on failure. It’s paradoxical, isn’t it? Because obviously the TED story is such a stellar success. But the failure conference, or Fruits of Failure as we’re calling it, really emerged from the idea that in a lot of other cultures there is a real stigma attached with failure. Once you sort of fall off the road of success, then it’s very hard to get back on track. It’s a problem, actually, if you want to foster an entrepreneurial, risk-taking culture, which a lot of countries do.

A lot of countries in parts further east than America will say that “yes, we want to have startups, we want to have a knowledge economy,” but there are cultural issues — they’re about being willing to take a risk and being willing to fail. And this conference is going to look at that. It’s going to look at failure from a personal level, from a philosophical level, what do religions say about failure, and really to look at it from a variety of dimensions. And it’s to the credit of TED and Lara Stein , who was very supportive of this. It’s still in the very early stages. We’re just sort of getting it off the ground now. But it’s a testimonial to TED. And also the success of TED is it’s willingness to take risks, and this is a good example of that.

So it was a really good event. I met Marc Koska , whose talk I see has been put up on the web now. He had the SafePoint syringe, and I’ve tried to put him in touch with some people in Egypt who might be able to help him manufacture and get it onto the market. Egypt has an interesting history. They have very high rates of Hepatitis C in Egypt, the direct result of really poor use of syringes in the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s. People were reusing syringes and they spread Hepatitis C through the population. Egypt is a great place which would really benefit from Marc’s technology, and so I put him in touch and I hope something will come from that.

I have a number of other interactions and stories and that sort of thing. So certainly in terms of tangible connections, TED did exactly what it says on the label, which is, you go out, people are very willing to talk to strangers, and get down to quite detailed discussions very quickly. So that was terrific.

On a separate note, you asked me has my work changed. Well, the other thing that was really inspirational about TED is just the range of creativity on display. And in particular, what most impressed me, both among the Fellows, but also the speakers and the other delegates, was people who came from very different disciplines, visually-oriented disciplines, and the way that they negotiate the world through sound or pictures, but not through words, which is the way I work my way through the world. It was really inspiring and while I can’t aspire to the heights of visual creativity that they’ve attained, it certainly got me thinking about how I present my work, and to try to think of more visual ways of getting ideas across. So that was immensely helpful as well.

The theme of your talk was cultural hybridization. While attending TEDGlobal did you discover any new examples of cultural hybridization?

Yes, it wasn’t so much geographic as it was cross-disciplinary. TED is all about cross-fertilization. For example there was a really great presentation [by Manuel Lima ] which was looking at visual ways of presenting data. It was a really interesting example of hybridization, again, not across geographies, but across, almost, modalities of expression.

The other thing I tried to do, I was there to also catalyze some of these connections. So, for example, one of the Fellows [ Gabriella Gómez-Mont ] runs an arts cultural center in Mexico City, and I have a friend who does something very similar in Cairo. And again, a lot of what they’re trying to achieve, both in Mexico City and Cairo, are actually quite similar in terms of both fostering young artists, but also creating a sense of community around the arts in a place which has a lot of urban stresses and a lot of the pressures of an urban space in the developing world. So I’ve put them in contact as well. I see myself more as a catalyst for hybridization, trying to get some of these reactions going.

The wonderful presentation [by Manuel Lima] about 3D visualization was how to take complex data and put in visual form. And really what he was doing, it was a form of hybridization. It was working from the world of numbers and facts and figures and statistics, and finding a creative way to present that visually, which also not only makes it more accessible, but actually draws out more information because when you present that sort of dense data in a new way, you also start to see new connections between pieces of data that you might not have seen if you just saw them as numbers on a page. And I thought that was a very interesting example of what I would consider to be hybridization.

So TED was a really wonderful experience. I’m sure it’s great going as a delegate, but certainly going as a Fellow was also very, very interesting because you had more time to interact with this incredibly interesting group of people. That was a bonus as well.

Moving on to your talk, do you think globalization is driving the mesh of civilizations or is the mesh driving globalization?

That’s an interesting question. It’s a bit of both, isn’t it? I have to point out it’s not a new phenomenon. Every generation thinks that what they’re going through is some how new, unprecedented, paradigm-breaking. Certainly what is happening is that the exchange of information and the awareness is amplified, it’s speeding up, and it’s on a larger scale. During the colonial period, if you look at the Arab world, since 1798 there’s been a very strong European presence, Western presence, in the Arab world, but Arabs who had contact with that were still a reasonably limited number. I mean by contact that there was an intellectual exchange.

So what’s happening now, of course, is that that’s almost being democratized in a way. That’s now spreading out to a very large group of people across the world, but I’m talking specifically in the Arab region. Young Arabs in particular are inveterate users of the Internet. The statistics which show number of Internet connections are actually not an accurate reflection of what happens in a place like the Arab world because whether you have a computer at home is neither here nor there. You’re nipping down the Internet café. And then, of course, they have access via mobile phone and through satellite TV.

So in a sense it’s almost like old wine in new bottles, in that a process that has gone on for centuries is certainly speeded up and spread out. And I think it has interesting implications because historically there has been an idea or notion in the West that if only these people — meaning everyone who’s not in the West — knew the way that we live. If only they really understood our way of life, our society, then surely they would want to be like us. And in a sense it is just a question of revealing this to them, and they will come.

And the challenge now, which is what I tried to drive at in the handsome three minutes I was given to expound on what is a very complex cultural phenomenon — I was grateful for any time, frankly. It was great to be up on that stage. But, what’s interesting now is the fact that people in other cultures, and again I’m speaking specifically of the Arab world, are aware of what is happening elsewhere in the world, particularly the young generation which speaks some English or at least can read English, is on the net, knows what is going on in the outside world. And the real challenge now, in my view, is in a sense for the West also because why is it that people continue to do things differently? Before we could say, “ah, well they don’t know how we live, and when we show them that’s how they’ll live.” But the reality now is that young people know the score in the West. They know what happens, but they make different choices, and those choices are not based on ignorance. Those choices are based on information. And that’s, I think, a real challenge for people in the West to really accustom themselves to — that not everyone wants to live the way that Westerners do.

What are some barriers to the mesh of civilizations?

It’s a very interesting question. It cuts both ways. So let’s look at the Western side of things for a moment. There is a sense here, because I grew up in Canada and I worked in the UK, that the West has sort of blazed a trail for the world to follow. It’s almost like a Francis Fukuyama idea of the end of history — that there is this model, we’re all going to converge on it, and that will be that. In particular this model that exists in the West places religion in a certain place. And it by and large relegates religion to something which is almost like the muzak of society — it’s there, occasionally you may tune in when you have nothing better to do, but it’s certainly sort of background noise to life in the West.

That is a fundamental difference to what is happening in the Arab world. And that young people, all people, but young people in particular have this intense, intense sense of faith and they cling to it and they believe it is a source of strength, not a barrier, is I think possibly an obstacle for Westerners to really understanding how society is developing. It’s often presented when Westerners talk about Islam or the Arab world; they somehow see Islam as a step backward. So when they see women who are covered, for example, they think it’s somehow a step backward. To Arabs and many of my friends and my family members, it’s a logical step forward.

So religion is one issue — the role of religion in society. The other huge — I don’t want to characterize these as barriers; they’re really just very big differences — is the role of the individual. Largely, the model in the West in society is the autonomous individual. The individual is almost like the atom of society. It’s the unit of society. And that’s how Western society has developed over the past few centuries. It’s very different in the Arab region. People don’t necessarily conceive of themselves as individuals. They really don’t see their place in society in that way. They see themselves as part of a collective. And that has really interesting implications on a number of levels, but it is also one of these really big differences between the West and the Arab world.

It cut’s both ways. There are lots of things that Arabs don’t understand about the West, although they have access to this information. We all filter information through our own prism. And Arabs have a prism of their own, so I’m not putting this all on Westerners who don’t understand and they should just do more. It cuts both ways. There are some things that Arabs don’t get about the West. So these barriers or these gaps are not just the doing of the West. I want to just stress that point — it cuts on both sides.

Certainly things have changed since September 11. My sense is that we are, I’d like to think anyway, that we’re entering a new phase of engagement between the Arab world and the rest of the world. And it’s not also just the West anymore because you have to bear in mind that, looking east from the Arab world as well, the rising economic and political centers in Asia are also of interest to the Arab world. So this is looking outside of the Arab world.

But I think that certainly in the West, there is a realization, and particularly after the difficulties that have been encountered in Iraq and Afghanistan, I think there is now a new sense that these people are different, that they don’t necessarily want what we want. And why is it they don’t want what we want? I’d like to think that there is a slightly more open-minded approach in certain courts to really try to understand what makes this part of the world — What are the motives? What are the factors? What drives people in the Arab world? — in a much more sophisticated and nuanced way.

I’m associated with the American University in Cairo and it’s good to see Westerners, particularly young Americans, coming to Cairo and other centers in the Arab region to learn Arabic. Because understanding the language does give you new insight into how people think and how people behave. A language is very much a representation and reflection of culture. And so I see that certainly there is a new curiosity and a new willingness to try to understand really what’s going on in the Arab region, not assume that it’s backward or it’s wrong. That’s been really encouraging. So at the end of the day, this great tragedy of September 11 may well have opened new doors for communication between the Arab world and the rest of the world.

Read the rest of this Q&A with Shereen El Feki >> In your talk, you cite examples of the mesh of civilizations geared toward the young Arab community. Are there examples in the adult Arab community as well?

Yes, although, the thing about popular culture is it’s very much a fast-moving, young person’s game. And you have to remember as well, the Arab world has a demographic which is very different from the West. So, if we’re looking at Western societies, the majority of the population is over 40, heading in extreme cases — Japan, Italy — over 65. It’s completely different in the Arab region. In most countries of the Arab world, 60% of the population is under the age of 30, and in some cases under the age of 20. So when you’re talking about popular culture and you’re talking about the majority of the population, it really is young people. And so that’s really where I in particular have most interest, and that’s why I focus on that.

What role does the Internet play in the mesh of civilizations? Is it a positive or negative force?

It cuts both ways, doesn’t it? Because of course it gives access to everyone, and that’s access to people who want to have a positive engagement and positive dialogue, and people who just want to rant. In something as complex as the Internet, it’s very hard to generalize, and I wouldn’t wish to. Certainly it has opened up new avenues for young Arabs to express themselves. Facebook is an extraordinarily popular medium in the Arab world. It’s interesting about Facebook because it’s not just a means of personal communication; it’s also a means of social mobilization.

Evgeny Morozov , one of the Fellows, is obviously an expert on this. For example, they tried to organize a national strike in Egypt via Facebook. So it opens tremendous possibilities. An example which is not from the Arab world, but Evgeny actually mentioned it : the janus face of the Internet is the fact that in Iran, for example, during the uprising around the election results, the young activists reached out on the Internet, and they were getting lots of traffic from the West, but that of course allowed the government to identify them and then clamp down. So it is a great tool and one of these catalysts of hybridization, but it’s not without risks.

What role does economics play in the mesh? Does economic demand pull cultural change, or does cultural change influence economic demand?

In Egypt for example, there have been enormous economic transformations. Egypt went from, before the 1970s, a very status, closed economy to, throughout the 1970s there was something called the infitah, the opening of the economy. And now Egypt has a really burgeoning capitalist economy. There is a lot of consumption in the region, in Egypt and else where. The Gulf region in particular has been buoyed up by revenues from oil and gas. When you have a consumer culture, people want things and one of those things is information. And they also have the means to access the information. They actually have the tools. They have the computers. They have the mobile phones. So yes, I would say that certainly economic prosperity, and they also have the time.

I’d say in places like the Gulf which are highly prosperous parts of the region, that certainly economics has given people leisure. It’s given people time. It gives young people the tools and the opportunity to go on the net and to speak to a wider world. Other parts of the Arab region, it’s a very different story. In Egypt, one could argue — there’s very high unemployment now — so some people are very rich, a lot of people are struggling. And so in those sorts of conditions, what sort of access do young people have? You could argue that because a lot of young people can’t find a job, maybe they’re spending their time in Internet cafés. We don’t really know but I’d say that the rise of the consumer culture has really pushed people into looking beyond their own borders if they can afford the time.

Let me just point out here that I’m generalizing about 350 million people and obviously there are huge variations in the Arab region. And this is something which often gets lost on outsiders — that what happens in Morocco or Tunisia is different than what happens in Egypt, which is different than what happens in the Gulf. So I just want to add that caveat, and I haven’t even talked about Palestine — the West Bank and Gaza — which are completely different. Quite a different dynamic going on and how people access the Internet there and go about their lives is, again, different. So I just want to be clear that I’m doing a bit of generalizing and my apologies for that.

Do you think that national borders are still relevant to defining culture, or are they fading into the background?

This is sort of picking up on Parag Khanna’s talk , which he talks about the shifting nature of borders. I haven’t really thought about it, actually. This comes to the question of how do you identify yourself? In the Arab world, do you identify yourself as a Muslim? Do you identify yourself as an Arab? Do you identify yourself as an Egyptian or as a Jordanian? I’ve never really asked young Egyptians that question. Certainly if the night of the big football match of Egypt vs. United States, for example, is anything to go by, then definitely Egyptians see themselves as Egyptians first and foremost. I think it depends on the context. Yes, I think national borders do matter and certainly one still sees cross-border conflicts in the Arab region and cross-border tensions.

So yes, I still think national borders do matter. I think also, though, that people are capable of multiple identities. So while I might see myself as an Egyptian, I would also see myself as part of a wider Muslim community. That has been a big shift and there are people who have written extensively about this, like Olivier Roy, for example, Globalized Islam . There is the concept in Islam of something called the ummah , which is the community of believers — and this is something where the Internet has played a role in terms of really connecting Muslims across borders. I think national borders do matter, but I think that people can identify to multiple groups at once. So we’re all carrying different passports at one time, whether literal or figurative.

Can policymakers leverage the positive aspects of this mesh of civilizations?

I would like to think so. This is something where society leads and politicians follow. It’s interesting if you look at the Arab region, the majority of the population is young, as I mentioned, but most of the people who actually call the shots are much older and so they’re actually not part of an Internet generation. So for them, often when they react to the Internet or there are forms of censorship, it’s often because you’re talking about a generation that doesn’t get the net, that doesn’t adapt easily. So yes, I would love to see that, and there are some cases of leaders in the Arab region. Jordan is an interesting example where the King and Queen, they have a Facebook site; I think the Queen Twitters. You’ll have to check this one. [She does! @QueenRania ] So there are efforts, definitely, but I think that this push of hybridization is going to come from the grassroots. It’s not going to come from the top.

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Popular culture in the Arab world : arts, politics, and the media

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Uploaded by station44.cebu on November 19, 2022

How the Arab Diaspora Reconnects to Culture on the Dance Floor

Since 2018, Arab American DJs, event planners, and party promoters have cultivated a growing nightlife space for the diaspora to dance and celebrate, honoring the music they grew up with in the popular club music scene.

Today, this new wave has taken over the nightclubs across North America: a partying subgenre dedicated to Middle Eastern and North African mixes . These blends have gained traction for their innovative beats and dance floors with dabkeh lines, throwing the celebratory Palestinian traditional dance into a contemporary context. Partygoers, who constantly sell out these events, can’t get enough. With multiple party collectives, entertainers, and DJs now emerging, Arab Americans have found a new sound to party with.  

The elements of traditional Arabic music—its rhythms and maqams , or melodic modes—may feel very different to Western-trained ears. That’s what excites musician and producer Philippe Manasseh about fusing it with other genres.

“A lot of Western electronic music feels like it’s on a grid,” he said in a recent interview. “I would argue Arabic music is much more complex, which open doors to explore how we can play music isn’t so rigid.”

Manasseh started creating electronic music with Nadim Maghzal as Wake Island in 2006, after they both emigrated from their native Lebanon to Canada. The duo often found themselves reckoning with a disconnection from their identities in their new home.

“We felt through the years that we weren’t really expressing who we were, particularly as Arabs, after 9/11,” Manasseh reflects. “We started making art and music, but even there, that side of us was very suppressed. That led us to start thinking, how does one reconnect to their culture? Since we’re musicians, music was the first thing we thought. Let’s just rediscover the music from the region that we have heard all our life but we never contextualized.”

Soon after, the duo got an interview request from Saphe Shamoun , who at the time was pursuing a masters in Middle Eastern studies at New York University and hosting a radio show on WNYU. Manasseh described Shamoun, a Syrian living in New York City, as “an extensive encyclopedia of Arabic music.” Very quickly, they connected over their shared heritage and goals for incorporating their identities into their work.

In the fall of 2018, the trio launched Laylit , a party collective with the goal of showcasing the rich musical genres of the Middle East mixed with electronic dance music. Their first event was at Mood Ring, a small venue in Brooklyn with room for fifty people on the dance floor.

“It was a Wednesday night, and it was completely backed up—and that’s when we noticed there’s something there,” Manasseh reflected. “There’s a thirst for these types of connections and these types of community gatherings. Next thing you know, it moves from Wednesdays to Saturdays. Then, the venue got a bit overwhelmed. We had to move to another venue, and then that venue got too full too soon.”

Laylit and other Arab-focused electronic nights immerse attendees in a blend of popular Western music and nostalgic music from the region. Manasseh described his physical reactions to hearing the different sounds together.

“Something is coming together in complex ways that is just hitting me differently,” he explained. “It’s not the rhythm I’m used to. It’s like this other rhythm. A lot of people, me included, are a bit uneasy—how is my body supposed to move to this? I’m not quite sure. Then you try to let yourself go to the music.

“People coming to our party long term developed this new sense,” he continued. “You see people belly dancing. You see people raising their hands. You watch people on the dance floor and try to learn new moves. Sometimes, I find myself going to a techno rave, and suddenly I’m raising my hand in the same way.”

After a COVID-imposed hiatus, Laylit came back in July 2021 to an even larger venue. It soon expanded to events in other cities, including Montreal, Washington, D.C., and Detroit—a top destination for Manasseh as the birthplace of techno and house music.

“Personally, as a queer man, I’m very interested in the culture there,” Manasseh said. “All these music movements started in queer and Black culture, and that’s something that resonates a lot with me, because I feel a lot of similarity and kinship with these experiences and marginalization. Also, it’s the largest population of Arab people in North America, which I had no idea about.”

Since 2021, Laylit has expanded to Toronto and Ottawa, hosted a Boiler Room party, and is currently planning for parties in Boston, Los Angeles, and Europe. They’ve thrown over seventy parties since their commencement.

“I think we’re part of a movement that encouraged a lot of people to start doing this. I can’t help but see the effect of our presence and the presence of other parties and artists in our scene that are just encouraging this versioning of new artists and new DJs and new parties. We were not the first party to do this. We’re not the last, but we, I think, came at a time where things were very much not existent in North America.”

Meanwhile, on the West Coast, one Arab American DJ has been bringing his own remixing style to L.A.’s competitive nightlife scene and soon, to the world. Ibrahim Abu-Ali, more commonly known as DJ Habibeats —a play on the Arabic term of endearment habibi , “my love”—is a Palestinian American DJ originally from the San Francisco Bay Area. Learning the art from his uncle, who was always DJing at family events, Abu-Ali began DJing himself around the age of thirteen.

After several years of playing various parties, weddings, and other events, Abu-Ali entered law school in 2018, when he took a break from DJing to focus on his studies. However, halfway through his law school career, the pandemic hit. Locked inside and in search of a creative outlet, he began posting videos to TikTok: making musical mash-ups, scratching, and breaking down American pop songs on his turntables. Within three months, his videos were going viral.

Today, DJ Habibeats’s TikTok account entertains over one million followers, with his most popular videos garnering over two million views. After the success of the mash-up videos, Abu-Ali began releasing remixes. His first was a mix of Lebanese singer Nancy Ajram’s “Ya Tabtab,” an Arabic pop song from 2006, with Brazilian baile funk and Jersey club sounds.

“I made this remix that was all three of those things, and, to me, I felt like this is so niche. I was thinking that many people wouldn’t like it, but I like it. To my big surprise, people loved it. That was the moment where I thought to myself, well, I kind of have something here. People are down with my sound.”

In October 2022, Abu-Ali launched his party series Habibi’s House in Los Angeles, creating a space for Arabic mixes alongside sounds and styles from other cultures. What started as an eighty-person monthly event became a sold-out 1,200-person show in L.A.’s historic Avalon nightclub, all in seven months. Since then, DJ Habibeats has brought his unique blend of Arabic tunes and electric beats around the globe, with performances in Australia, India, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. He is currently on the second leg of his second U.S. tour of Habibi’s House.

While both Laylit and Habibi’s House anchor their sounds in Arab remixes, both parties champion multiculturalism in their values.

“It’s very important for us that people from the outside come and visit and share, the same way we’ve shared everyone else’s culture,” Manasseh describes. “We’ve been to salsa parties, and we’ve been to reggaeton parties, and we’ve been to techno parties, you know, and I don’t want people to come to our space and be like, ‘Oh, this is the Arab party.’ That’s definitely something we like providing, this idea that we’re shattering some expectations about not only what music is playing, but who’s in the room, and how they behave and seeing this Arab joy.”

Abu-Ali credits his upbringing in the ethnic diversity of the Bay Area for his multicultural lens: “I could see if you only grew up with American pop music and then you, all of a sudden, get exposed to something else, that might feel a little hard to connect to. But growing up with Arabic music, when I heard all these other types of cultural music, I feel like they’re just easy to connect to. For me, music is the number one way that I connect with culture and people. It’s my favorite thing in the world, when you, as a DJ, play a song and then someone’s face lights up and they go like, ‘Whoa! How does he know this song?’”

The undeniable connection between the nightlife scene and cultural heritage has seen reverberating effects of those outside the community accepting and celebrating an Arab identity in North America. With this rise in the music world, Abu-Ali shared his musings on the growing appreciation.

“Let’s say fifteen years ago, if you were playing reggaeton in a nightclub, you would probably walk in and think, ‘Oh, did I walk into Latin night?’ But with the rise of reggaeton and artists like Bad Bunny, that’s just normal. Then the next song could be Future and the next song could be Drake. On top of that, half the room, maybe more, doesn’t speak Spanish, and that doesn’t matter. They’re still one hundred percent vibing to Bad Bunny, and they love it. As a result, they’re vibing to more Latin music as well.

“Why can’t Arabic music be that way? Why does it have to be this foreign thing? Why can’t it be just as normal as anything else? Granted, I know that’s because of America’s proximity to Latin America. There’s a huge Latin American population in the U.S., but there’s a huge Middle Eastern population in the U.S. too.”

According to the Arab American Institute , there are an estimated 3.7 million Arab Americans in the United States, equal to about one percent of the population. However, a federally recognized estimate may be available soon, now that the U.S. Office of Management and Budget has released new standards for racial/ethnicity data collection in federal agencies, including a newly designated “Middle Eastern or North African” category. This change is set to be finalized by summer 2024 , and, if established, Americans can expect to see the new category in the 2030 Census. 

Abu-Ali added that Arab representation is expanding in multiple entertainment sectors. “ There’s artists like Saint Levant and Elyanna . There’s DJs like myself and Nooriyah out in London. There’s comedians like Mo [Amer], Ramy [Youssef], Bassem Youssef. Then you have TikTok, on top of all of that, which connects people with the world.”

So far, the growing wave of Arab DJs and dance music has left its mark in club culture. For Manasseh, that may be enough.

“It’s not like we’re changing the whole world, but we’re bringing something to the table, as a dance party and as artists.”

Sharon Arana is the festival services coordinator for the 2024 Smithsonian Folklife Festival. She received her BA in history of the Middle East and North Africa at Sarah Lawrence College and loves a good party.

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