I'll respond lata

Personally do you mean? No, but I do have two albums by Khaled which I really like, 'Sahra' and 'Kenza' (however, I don't play his version of 'imagine' much). I'm not sure, is Khaled 'Arabic'? I kind of assume he is... What would you recommend in this area?

I've heard some Fairuz before from my bro.

i wrote out a long paragraph for this thread. but then i looked at the subject again and it said "artists" not racists"

Khaled is good...Natacha Atlas (though i dont know what nationality she is, or if she's true arabic) is wonderful as well...Rachid Taha...the Lebanese half of Shakira...oh Cheb Mami..just heard his new one the other day..not bad...I used to be a world music buyer so I'm pretty familiar with many artists..but these are all I can remember for now!

I think Lamya is from Oman so that counts. Viva Lamya!

I love this topic and glad someone brought it up! Arabic artists I truly recommend include:

Ofra Haza (Israeli Madonna, died in 2000 - but still great!)
Natacha Atlas (from somewhere in Egypt - former singer for Transglobal Underground)
Amina (from Tunis, combines French & Moroccan - totally hot, especially her first disc "Yalil")
Amr Diab (way cool Ricky Martin-type without the cheese from Egypt)
Tarkan (supersexy Turkish guy; latest disc "Karma" is the bomb!)
Yosefa (Another Moroccan belly-dancing babe; first disc is best but hard to find)
Shani (look for "Call of the Wild," her best disc although she has some growth to do -- think B. Spears meets Shakira)
Tulkuu, A.R. Rehmann, Talvin Singh, and Lisa Gerrard may not be 100% Arabic, but have many Middle Eastern sounds throughout there stuff too.

A great site to check out is www.aramusic.com for authentic stuff. You can also hear audio samples too! I hope this helps. These are some of my favorites...

TRON said:

Ya ana, ya ana, ana wee ya!

sure. But from egypt, mostly. I dig all that MTV arabia music.

Oooh you guys I'm sooo impressed by you all. Where are ya'll from anyway(You can send me a lil' sumthin sumthin) please do holla. Ok I RECOMMEND THIS:

Laila Murrad-My absloute FAVE Arabic female singer Who I refer to as the 'Arabic Billie Holiday'. Her best songs are the ones writtin by 'Mohammed Abullwahab'

Mohammed Abdu-My absloute FAVE Arabic male singer. Mohammed is from Saudia Arabiah, ppl there conisder him the Stevie Wonder of their nation. His voice haven't CHANGED a bit since the 60's , and my fave recordings are the ones from the 60's/70's/early 80's. His lastest efforts are good tho what I love about this brotha is he don't make VIDEOS and not much of interviews either.

Fairuz-Ahh what can I say about this woman?? Just hearing her voice make my eyes go mistey. This woman STOPPED doing interviews since the early 80's becoz she have problem with speaking and she's sooo FRANK. Lebanon TVs stopped airing her videos becoz she refused to sing in front of the Algerian president.

Cheb Khalid-The GREATEST Ray singer(Yes he's Arabic )

Angham , Zeckrah and Latifah-The Arabic Celine/Whitney/Mariah I know that my examples are kinda stupid

Ahlam-The Queen of the Khalijian music. Arabic critics used to be ruff to her cuz she was,,,a wedding singer.

Sherrin-She look Asian but she's full blooded Arabic woman from Egypt. She's young but she have a very powerfull voice "Ahh ya laiyl"


BTW Tarakn is not ARABIC, Natasha Atlus(Is half Arabic(Egyptian)/half French)


Holla, I wanna see more ppl in this thread. U guys are trullu something.

Moonbeam said:

"Sallim Alyaih"

TRON said:

She doesn't consider her self Arabic its her lost, screw her.

Bally Sagoo - Rising from the East


Kick ass beats with authentic Indian singing over it. (Not really Arabic, I guess, but I love this cd.

http://www.ishqrecords.co...yframe.htm

I do dig Ofra Haza and Cheb Mami

Ah yeah... Amr Diab... who could forget "Habibi"... I saw him in Sydney a few years ago... was pretty good!

But what about the group Alabina, with the lead female vocalist Ishtar.. (she's simply gorgeous, and that voice... beautiful!)

I like them because they have a divine blend of flamenco/ middle eastern music/gypsy and dance music...The musicians are so diverse... the band includes Arabs, Jews, Europeans Gypsies... and the combination of all these sounds is seductive... and delicious... I also saw them in Sydney.. they were amazing!