Will Arab K-Pop Go Global?
It’s no secret: Arabs love K-Pop. with countries such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Morocco, Egypt and Qatar as the genre’s biggest consumers in the world, K-Pop definitely has a home in the region. As a result, a movement of Arab K-Pop artists was born and this movement is rapidly growing. Now, the ultimate Arab K-pop anthem is here.
Saudi-Arabia based Kuwaiti singer Bader Al-Shuaibi just teamed up with Korean-American singer AleXa on the ultimate bop. Entitled ‘It’s On”, the track comes as part of a Spotify venture, featuring Arabic, Korean and English lyrics. “(It is) unfamiliar but interesting and fun,” Al-Shuaibi told Arab News in an interview. “It blends cultures and backgrounds and even people.”
The song was unveiled as part of Spotify’s Radar programme, the streaming platform’s global emerging-artist program that launched in March 2020.
“In our continued efforts to blur the boundaries of the global music landscape, we cooked up this next Radar collaboration with a focus on K-pop and Khaleeji pop from the Gulf region,” said Wissam Khodur, who manages artist and label partnerships at Spotify MENA.
“K-pop is performing amazingly well across the world, but especially so in the Gulf, where we see K-pop releases shoot to the peak position on charts,” Khodur continued.
To mark her regional debut, AleXa said: “I’m so grateful for this collaboration. It’s a fresh, never-heard-before mix of cultures and sound. I really can’t wait for our fans to hear this track all over the world.”
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