Ma'ana Music Show

Eliz Murad was born in France to two Lebanese parents. She grew up with a dual culture which has enriched her imagination since childhood. While Fayrouz, Asmahan, Majda El Roumi echoed from his mother's radio, Eliz discovered Tina Turner and Nirvana. From then on she bought a bass guitar and learned music on her own. Very early on, she wanted to mix the arabic language with music, rock energy and create a bridge between all this music genres and universes that are one in her head. After ten years as Teleferik's lead singer and bass player, Eliz  traded her bass for her guitar. She began her solo career as an author, composer and singer.

APOCALYPSNA bio:

While Eliz was starting a new female rock duo project as a singer and bassist. The global corona pandemic cut her off from this project. Frustration and the urge to create drove her to write solo songs. She swapped her bass for her guitar. she then began to play it every day.

APOCALYPSNA is born.

For Intibint, music is the path to combining her conflicting identities. She is a British Yemeni singer songwriter, producer and illustrator from London and has been called one of the most unique emerging artists by Scenenoise. Growing up listening to Yemeni music at weddings with her mum and a mixture of RnB hip hop, rap and rock music on her own, her rare musical palette seeps through her distinct sound which is not confined by one single genre. Her journey to music has not been a tradition- al one. Coming from a conservative background, she wasn’t able to pursue music for many years, but this has made her the unique artist she is today, releasing her first self produced and composed track less than one year after she started teaching herself to produce music. The pseudonym ‘Intibint’ stands for the phrase ‘you are a girl’ in Arabic, which is usually meant to undermine and disempower women. Intibint uses it to change the narrative of the Arab woman’s position in society through her art both in the east and west. Intibint’s music has been featured by publications including Bustle, Wordplay magazine, Scene Noise, BBC Arabic Xtra and BBC Radio London.

About WAYWTD

Release date: 9th July 2021

‘What Are You Willing To Do’, is made up of 5 songs, two of which were completely written and produced by Intibint. The story of the EP follows Intibint’s journey of falling in love with a non-Yemeni, and how she navigated finding acceptance from her own family who forbid relationships outside of marriage and with non-Yemenis. At the same time, it follows the process of the acceptance of her own culture and religion from the non-Yemeni man she was in love with.

This week I wanted to get a different perspective of an artist at the start of their career. We often talk with those that have had perceived success but this week I wanted to share with you the challenges and successes of someone at the beginning of their journey.

Myself and Mustafa, aka MC Hype speak about about making mix tapes with mix tapes, why marketing is so important as a musician, how he got into producing, the pros and cons of Soundcloud and his experience of Distrokid over Tunecore and CD Baby.

In the episode we talk about being influenced by Avril Levigne, not giving power over to record labels, and knowing your legal rights as a musician. Lina also talks about how you are business as a musician, the importance of marketing, why Instagram is her preferred social media platform. As well as the importance of having the right team, why numbers don't matter to her, social media hacks that attained growth and how her album Yom came together from her fans writing the lyrics.

Described as 'History Maker' at only 19, Lina is one of the most prominent Palestinian artists in the last decade. She rose to international fame when winning The Voice counting Alicia Keys, Queen, Will Smith, and Little Mix as her supporters. 

Instagram @linamakoul

In this episode I sat down with the label manager of global music distribution power house Believe's MENA office. Edwin Harb and I had a great chat talking about the MENA music industry, how the pandemic has affected the music industry as a whole. We also delved into how Believe helps musicians deliver their music and also what artists need to have in order to maximise their chance of success. I think you'll get a lot of value from this episode.

For any music distribution enquiries can contact Edwin on edwin.harb@believe.com or on Instagram @edwin.harb

One of the most respected & notorious MC’s of Indian origin, PAV4N is the founding member of the critically acclaimed electronic rap group Foreign Beggars from London and head honcho of both Dented Records and Par Excellence Records.

PAV4N is the first rapper of Indian descent to have a top 10 single in the UK Charts with Badman Riddim and has worked with a plethora of incredible producers including Skrillex, Noisia, Steve Aoki, Knife Party, Dj Vadim, Nucleya, Sez on the Beat.

With 7 Studio albums under his belt and 17 years of live show experience, PAV4N is known for his explosive, high energy performances with genre spanning production from some of the worlds finest artists this is a show not to be missed.

PAV4N has supported the Prodigy on their ‘Run With The Wolves’ UK tour and countless other artists including Amy Winehouse, Snoop Dogg, Sub Focus, Deadmau5, Faith No More, The Chemical Brothers & Many More

Pavan has released on Mau5trap, Ministry of Sound, Ram Records, Critical Recordings, Owsla, Sony Music, Warner Music, Blackout Recordings, Never Say Die Records, Vision Recordings, Monstercat, Dim Mak, Black Butter records to name a few. 
 Having released 100’s of records, many Beatport No1 singles and 100’s of millions of streams, MainStage performance at 100’s of festivals round the world PAV4N is a force for the culture that is not to be reckoned with.

In this week's show I sat down with UAE based hip hop artist - Swerte.

Swerte was Born in Indonesia and claims Swiss / Indonesian heritage.

He found success early on forming a breakout rap group called The Southsiderz in Indonesia during the late 90’s.

Swerte founded and established The Recipe in Dubai in 2008, as a collective of mc’s. The group quickly became one of the most recognizable faces for hiphop in the region and now cosidered a pioneer in the regions Hip Hop Scene.

With a constant stream of music released over the years through their own label, The Recipe has opened for artists such as Snoop Dogg, Skepta, Macklemore, Rick Ross, 50 Cent, De La Soul, Cypress Hill, Mobb Deep, Fat Joe, Akon, Stormzy and many more.

In this episode we talk about his love of music, how Swerte made sometimes the wrong choices but bounced back to be the artist he is today, the power of social media and how being an english rapper in an predominantly Arab speaking region brings some challenges.

Bashar Murad is a Palestinian singer/songwriter, and filmmaker producing globally influenced pop music rooted in Palestinian spirit. His music challenges stereotypes and highlights social issues facing Palestinian youth that are seldom addressed in Palestine, including living under the occupation, gender equality, and LGBTQ+ rights. 

2018 was a busy year, as Bashar released several tracks which garnered regional and global attention including, “Shillet Hamal” (Bunch of Bums), Ilkul 3am Bitjawaz (Everyone’s Getting Married) and the United Nations commissioned song and music video for “Ana Zalameh” (I Am A Man). By 2019 he was touring, playing his Arabic pop gumbo across the Middle East, Europe and Canada. He also directed the video “Emta Njawzak Yamma” for Palestinian Rap Group, DAM (Cooking Vinyl), and released “Klefi / Samed”, a collaboration with Icelandic Industrial Punk band Hatari. 

He has been featured in articles from CBC, The Guardian, the Globe and Mail and the BBC, with the press describing him as “The Palestinian singer blurring gender lines” and a “slightly built, mild-mannered Arabic provocateur”

Bashar is currently working on an EP titled “Maskhara”, which is set for release in 2020 though PopArabia

In this episode we chatted with Bashar  about being a Palestinian artist and the difficulties that creates, his creative process, how he executes his social media strategies and his tips on making a music video.

Reim El Houni trained in the BBC and worked her way up the ladder primarily working on the production of corporate films, TV commercials, webcasts and events.  She moved to Dubai in 2007 where she was catapulted back into the broadcast world, producing & directing the first English language locally produced TV show for broadcaster Dubai One.  She became an Executive Producer and Head of Events at the channel, responsible for developing a range of lifestyle programming and for live TV coverage of key events in the Dubai calendar.

Reim launched her own production company Ti22 Films in January 2011 servicing both corporates & broadcasters. Ti22 Films has won 11 New York Festival Awards & an additional 13 finalist awards and in 2014 was awarded its first Cannes Corporate Media and TV Award.  Reim has worked with some of the globes largest multinationals such as Amazon, Reebok, Swarovski, LG Electronics, to name a few, and broadcasters such as National Geographic, Discovery Channel, BBC and many more.

As Reim believes the future of the media industry is in online content, in 2014 Reim founded dubai ON demand, an online presenter led lifestyle channel featuring a host of well known Dubai personalities, where the world of branded content and influencer marketing collide.  dubai ON demand has evolved into a video based personal branding membership community for business owners, thought leaders and content creators. In 2019, a third video brand was born, Fusion Digital Content to support organisations to develop social media and digital video content and 2021 will see the birth of Dynamite, a brand specialised in video animations and design.

Reim has served on the Jury of the New York Festival Television & Film Awards for 7 years and is regularly called to speak at events.  She also supports organisations as a media consultant and video strategist and runs both in-house and public workshops to support entities with their video strategy.  With the pandemic, Reim identified a need for business owners to start creating their own videos to become visible and launched her DIY Video Academy, offering online courses to empower business professionals to start using video and gain the confidence to embrace their niche on camera.

In this episode we chatted with Reim about how important videos are nowadays for the musicians and what you need to be able to create DIY videos. We also delved into what were the best types of videos and the formats that musicians should create.

In this episode we chatted about a host of topics from helping kids of opportunity with his Hip Hop University, diversifying revenue within the music industry, his new music distribution service for MENA musician, Audioswim and the newly founded Emirates Music Summit.

In this show we spoke about Hip Hop culture thats unique around the globe but linked buy a common thread. The rise of B Boy and Hip Hop culture in the MENA region. The growth of Morocco and Sudanese hip hop markets , with Egypt and Lebanon as power houses of MENA music culture. What artists need to have ignorer to get partnerships with corporate brands, and how to leverage your skills to earn extra income as a musicians as well as how to approach brands.

Omar Tom, commonly known as OT is an entrepreneur, strategic planner, educator and public speaker. OT is the Cofounder and Partner at Dukkan Media, a marketing and cultural consultancy  known in the industry as the leader in contemporary Middle Eastern culture. Through which, OT has made a name for himself in the industry as a cultural expert and catalyst, connecting businesses and communities together.

For this episode I got down and dirty talking about the very ambiguous topic of music publishing rights within the MENA region, with the CEO of PopArabia commonly known as Spek.

PopArabia is the leading rights consultancy and independent music company in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). PopArabia represents the leading music publishing catalogues in the world including Sony/ATV Music Publishing (including the EMI Music Publishing catalogue), BMG Rights Management, Concord Music, Peermusic, Downtown Music Publishing, Kobalt Music Publishing, Round Hill Music, Atlas Music Publishing and others in the MENA region. We also represent the BMG and EMI Play Production Music libraries.

Spek and I speak about what publishing rights are and explore the publishing rights landscape within the Middle East. Spek explains the difference of sound recording rights and composition rights as well as music rights within the live streaming space. We touch on whether blockchain is a possible solution to the music industry data challenges and finally he gives some advice to buddy musicians.

In this episode I sat down with one of MENA's most successful EDM producers who happens to have had 6 years as Label and Content Manager at Anghami, and now in the same role at Deezer Middle East.

The 32 year-old DJ/Producer got an early start, spinning his first on-air gig with Marco V- Steve Angelo and more at the age of 17. He’s had many years to perfect his hand, so it’s no wonder he’s one of the best known DJs to launch out of Lebanon, spinning throughout the MENA,Canada & Japan.

In January 2019 he released “Rumors by R3HAB” and reached 1M streams in the first week. He went on to release a remix for K391 & Wyclef Jean which got lots of Summer play-listing on all streaming services. His latest hit is a remix of All Around the World which reached number 6 on the Global Beatport Charts.

In this episode we talk about; the importance of streaming, how to create a brand as it's not all about the music, how to pitch a content manager at a digital sales platform, opportunities within the MENA music industry and the importance of collaborating.

Social Media

Instagram @markshakedown

facebook @markshakedown

Show Notes

Elia was born in Lebanon. Managed to work with big names in the music industry and was able to develop a lot of ME talents. Establishing his UK-based music company in 2014, he booked tours and festivals for bands from the Middle East. Took his career to an international level by working with big artists such as Snoop Dogg, Serj Tankian, Engelbert Humperdinck, Tiny Tempah, and DJ Danny Avilla. Currently running Big Beards Entertainment for Artists Management. Awarded Artist Manager of the Year for 2019"

In this episode we discuss

What an artist manager role and when to have one
We talk about what you need to have in place as an artist to be ready for an artist manger
The power of finding different ways to market your music .
Is gaming a new viable marketing channel
If you make money from streaming
Create high standards for yourself and your music brand
....and a host of great little nuggets of information

Social Media:

Instagram: @EliaMssawir

In the hot seat this week we have one half of UK born UAE bred Hollaphonic, aka Olly Wood.

In this episode we talk about how to diversify your revenue streams. This is especially prevalent during these challenging  times where musicians and create performers have been hit hard with the closure of their major sources of revenue. Olly discusses ways on how to have maximise your talent.

Hollaphonic was born out of a small studio in the Arabian desert of Dubai, the brainchild of Olly Wood & Greg Stainer, two British electronic artists with a diverse electronic music history; The first electronic act to sign to a major label in the Middle East, Hollaphonic released their debut album ‘Personal Space’ through Universal in 2015 to great critical acclaim, landing 4 No.1 singles and a No.1 album across eight countries including the UAE and Saudi Arabia; their track Dangerous reached No.3 on the global Shazam trending charts.

After a succession of No.1 tracks and high level support from BBC Radio One, TenCent Entertainment Group and Spotify they were approached by Sony Music with a plan to release as a global priority, scoring the international single in Thailand in 2018 with a total of 13 months in the Thai international Top 10 in 2018 with Asian streaming giant JOOX. This led to a performance on Thai TV to over 50m as well as their lyrics being used to teach English in many schools. In early 2019 they enjoyed their first Asian No.1 grabbing top spot in Thailand’s main chart through a collaboration with Thai superstar Peck Palitchoke. 2019 saw them release their first K-Pop track with former U-Kiss Star Kevin Woo which was performed livestream to millions from a packed KCon in Madison Square Gardens.

Their musical diversity is akin to a mix between Disclosure, Camelphat, Guetta and the Pop sensibilities of artists such as Sigala, Jax Jones and Martin Solveig. They were the first act to play at Tomorrowland 2019 opening the event with a daybreak set on One World Radio broadcast on speakers across the festival and worldwide. Endorsements range from Red Bull Culture Key Opinion Leaders to Adidas and Rolls Royce.

In 2019 they also worked on artistic project with Franco Dragone working on La Perle, Dubai and One Last Drop with Cirque Du Soleil. Their music can be heard inflight with Emirates Airlines as the provided an original track for their Inflight introduction, the video feature their album and logo and has been viewed by over 250m passengers in it’s lifetime to date. Their track Spaceship was also chosen by NASA for their ‘playlist to the moon’ a global campaign voted for by fans.

www.facebook.com/hollaphonic

www.twitter.com/hollaphonic

www.instagram.com/hollaphonic

Live Bookings & Enquiries nicola@hollasonic.com

This week, I sat down with David Craig. David is the face of Mais Music, a Dubai based music consultancy that looks after hundreds of artist bookings within the MENA region. In our chat, David and I reminisce about his years in bonny scotland, how the MENA music landscape has changed over the years and David gives some fantastic advice on how to get more gigs.

Former DJ in Scotland, club and radio (mostly on the production side)  Was part of the Tommy Boy and Sony Street teams back in the day.  HNC in radio production and broadcasting. Briefly covered Scotland for BBC Radio 1Xtra  A regional reporter for Blues & Soul Magazine for 7 years.

Ran Urbanscot -Artist promotion and development uniting the scene in one website. Booking headline acts and having the talent open for them as well as starting the Urbanscot Lounge / Karma Lounge with the aim of fostering local talent performing their own music. One of the biggest success stories to come out of the initiative was Emeli Sande.

I came to Dubai as a DJ and then started  Mais Musica in 2013 (initially with Marko Smokingroove) It's grown to be one of the busiest agencies in the city with well over 200 gigs a month.

In 2018 Started DBC Hospitality and opened Viewz Bar in Abu Dhabi. The venue picked up a Time Out award in 2019 for dedication to entertainment.

Currently starting to get back into doing again after a 3-year partial sabbatical to focus on the businesses.

In this episode, we had a chat with David Kirreh a Palestinian Rapper. I spotted David performing at the Palestinian Music Festival last year in Ramallah and I am really pleased to see his recent rise with his signing to Universal Music MENA.

David talks about the difficulties for artists in the Middle East, his musical journey and his dreams of Arabic rap hitting the mainstream.