The 50 Best Arabic Pop Songs of the 21st Century

The pride of Saudi Arabia and one of the most popular singers in the Persian Gulf, Abdul Majeed Abdullah has been a huge singer of romantic ballads going back to the early 2000s. He shined brightest on this epic love song, which brings together slow-tempo Gulf drums, classical piano, and violins. The song itself has nearly 140 million views on YouTube.

The chart-topping Egyptian singer and actor Ahmed Saad released this song for the film Ahmum, a comedy about three cousins who inherit a fortune from their uncle. The ubiquitous hit is a feel-good track about having a good time on a beautiful day with the people you love. Saad has been on a roll in recent years, with major songs like “Ekhtayaraty” and “El Melouk,” the latter a collaboration with fellow Egyptian artists 3enba and Double Zuksh that was featured in the Disney+ series Moon Knight.

The Moroccan rap juggernaut released “Mghayer” as the second single off his 2021 album, Caméléon. It’s a powerful track about dealing with the pain of losing his mother, who had recently passed away at the time. The MC’s melodic Auto-Tuned voice glides over a pop-rap beat as he opens up his soul about not being able to say goodbye and how much he still needs her. Though not a traditional pop song, “Mghayer” crossed over into pop-culture consciousness, and ElGrandeToto remains a powerhouse in the regional rap scene, recently receiving high praise from Rick Ross on Instagram.

Though known for his more iconic songs in the Eighties and Nineties, the veteran Syrian singer George Wassouf released this popular and vulnerable hit in 2011. He sings about the envy people have for his life while he masks his true pain and emotional scars. Wassouf is widely regarded for his raspy voice and his ability to channel Arab tarab, a style of singing that typically features deep lyrics and a stirring vocal performance that can send listeners into what has been described as a “trance-state of ecstasy.”

In 2019, the year of its release, “Ser Alhayah” was the second most viewed Arabic song on YouTube. The track feels like a mix of elegant love song and party singalong, as the soft voice of Iraqi singer Aseel Hameem effortlessly flows over Gulf drums and qanun, a string instrument with roots in Southwest Asia and North Africa. Hameem’s work remains a major part of the crossover appeal for Iraqi music.

This fusion of Latin guitar strumming, a thumping khaleeji drum beat, and a deep-house-style bridge cemented the Yemeni-Emirati singer as one of this generation’s pop stars. “Entaha” also got a popular remix from DJ and producer Salvatore Ganacci. Balqees released her debut studio album, Majnoon, in 2013, helping to popularize a syncopated beat known as the Gulf rhythm across the Middle East and North Africa more broadly. She was featured on “Light Up the Sky,” a song made for the 2022 FIFA World Cup with fellow up-and-coming regional artists and produced by global powerhouse RedOne.

“Nasseeny Leih” sounds like it could’ve easily been a mid-Eighties soft-rock ballad a la the Cutting Crew’s “(I Just) Died in Your Arms.” In this 2018 hit, Silken-voiced Tamer Hosny yearns and pleads for the return of his lover. The Egyptian singer and actor has been a fixture in Arabic music since the early part of the century, with hit songs like “Ana Wala Aref” and “Si Al Sayed,” a smooth collaboration with Snoop Dogg that might’ve been a nice culture-bridging moment if not for lyrics that many deemed to be misogynistic.

This Algerian folk group formed the same year that they dropped this massive acoustic love song, which won Song of the Year at the Algerian Music Awards in 2013. In an interview with Dune Magazine, Babylone guitarist Rahim Elhadi credited the North African diaspora for the global reach of this song, saying that “Zina’s echo started in North Africa and, as the North African diaspora is everywhere in the world, it quickly spread.” “Zina” had a resurgence in 2022 when it was featured in the Netflix Egyptian film Finding Ola.

This song’s forlorn piano intro sets the tone for a slow journey into painful heartbreak. Over soft Persian Gulf drums, Syrian-Bahraini singer Assala belts through her romantic pain, referring to her ex-lover as “thak al ghaby” (“that stupid one”). Sung in a khaleeji (Gulf) dialect, “Thak Al Ghaby” remains one of the most popular songs in Assala’s long career, with close to 150 million views on YouTube, nearly 15 million streams on regional platform Anghami, and over 6 million streams on Spotify.

Nicknamed “the engineer” because he studied engineering in Iraq and for his ability to “engineer” a hit song, Iraqi-Saudi singer Majid Al Mohandis delivered on that nickname with “Tenadeek,” a deeply poetic love song featuring a traditional syncopated Persian Gulf rhythm and drums. Al Mohandis’ iconic status was affirmed in 2023 when his figure was in wax by Madame Tussauds Dubai.

Veteran singer and dabke dance-music queen Najwa Karam tapped into her Lebanese roots for “Khaleeni Shoufak,” which features a fast-paced, high-energy darbuka drum and the large thumping tabla drum typically played at Levantine weddings. Since her career bean in the 1990s, Karam has been known for proudly performing her music in a Lebanese dialect even as many of her contemporaries were using a market-friendly Egyptian dialect.

Nassif Zeytoun has quickly risen in the pop ranks since he became the first Syrian to win the regional singing competition show Star Academy in 2010. “Mich Aam Tezbat Maii,” about someone struggling in a relationship, stands out for being an international hit sung in a Syrian dialect, and it catapulted Zeytoun  to superstardom among the current generation of regional stars.

“Ma Balash” is truly a product of pop music in the mid-2010s, a mix of acoustic-guitar strumming, melancholic violin, and pop-R&B rhythm that has the vibe of a Shawn Mendes song. This catchy 2015 breakup song was a highlight for Egyptian singer Mohamed Hamaki, who enjoyed a massively successful career thanks to memorable, nostalgia-tinged songs like 2006’s “Ahla Haga Feeki” and 2008’s “We Eftakart.”

The Lebanese superstar has had an illustrious career spanning multiple decades. In addition to becoming the first Arab artist to have their own Netflix documentary and singing the official 2022 FIFA World Cup anthem with Nicki Minaj and Maluma, Myriam Fares has helped expand the palette of Arabic music by mixing traditional rhythms and melodies with the pop-house styles of the early 2010s. “Waheshni Eh,” which combines a thumping bass with a heavy darbuka drum beat and traditional melodies played by the mijwiz instrument, was a breakout moment for Fares that helped lay the foundation for the rest of her success.

Don’t let the reggaeton-lite beat fool you. Tunisian rapper Balti’s “Ya Lili”  is a profoundly tragic song about an oppressive government that many have interpreted as a statement of the political realities in his native country. The hook, sung by pop artist Hamouda (who was unknown at the time), is from the point of view of a child trying to share his feelings with a dismissive mother. “Ya Lili” was a regional sensation, and has since become the most viewed video by a Tunisian artist on YouTube with over 770 million views.

This bouncy track from Sudanese singer Eman Al Sharif incorporates elements of East African pop music and an immediately infectious call-and-response hook. Al Sharif, who started her career as a backup vocalist for other Sudanese performers, quickly rose in the ranks with “Weled Men Al Shukriya,” which was only the sixth song she’d ever released. Sudanese music remains under-appreciated in the rest of the region and has long faced an uphill battle to be recognized properly. Thankfully, artists like Al Sharif are breaking through in a way that cannot be ignored.

The Iraqi icon is beloved for his deeply poetic, highly emotional lyrics and his ability to bring complex musical arrangements to conventional pop music. With “Hal Endak Shak,” which clocks in at just over nine minutes, Kadim Al Sahir sings verses from renowned Syrian poet Nizar Qabbani, and harkens back to traditional Arabic music of the Fifties and Sixties. 

The Lebanese singer, songwriter, composer, and actor captivated listeners with this massive and airy love song, featuring lyrics to which are easy to sing along with. The song was created for Ziad Bourji’s movie Bel Ghalat and has over 340 million views on YouTube. Bourji came up in the ranks through the Lebanese singing competition show Studio El Fan, as well as his work writing music for other pop artists in the region, and he has gone on to release four albums and over 40 singles.

Armed with a reggaeton-esque beat and a catchy hook, Moroccan pop star Zouhair Bahaoui took over the summer of 2018 with this poppy breakup song aimed at an ex-lover. An independent artist, Bahaoui has risen quickly in the Moroccan scene and beyond, thanks to major collaborations with other North African artists like Hind Ziadi and TiiwTiiw, who he teamed up with for the massive 2017 anthem “Hasta Luego.” 

Though its upbeat drum pattern, fun hand claps, and funky bass line might remind you of the Seinfeld intro, this lovelorn tune is actually a fairly sad anomaly in Moustafa Amar’s otherwise upbeat catalog. Amar honed his hitmaking chops over several decades producing his own music and composing songs for other major artists like Egyptian star Ehab Tawfik.

The duo Oka wi Ortega are pioneers of a contemporary sound native to Egypt: the hip-hop influenced street-music sound known as mahraganat, or electro-shaabi. With its pulsating drums and catchy call-and-response chorus, their zany, fun, easy-to-sing 2017 song “El3ab Yalla” sent shockwaves through Egypt and around the region. The song, which is about giving into the devil’s temptation to drink and do drugs, helped pave the way for more mahraganat artists to rise in popularity and uplift the genre beyond Egypt’s borders.

This song came out of nowhere in the best way, going viral across TikTok and other social media platforms upon its release in 2021. Seventeen-year-old Jordanian singer Issam Alnajjar evoked Ed Sheeran with a fun acoustic love song that dominated viral charts, not just in Arabic-speaking countries, but in the U.S., U.K., Malaysia, and India, to name a few.

The spacey synth-heavy intro leads listeners into an Arabic-pop earworm from the legendary Egyptian singer and composer. The song features poetic metaphors to describe Mohamed Mounir’s admiration of women, with a memorable chorus that makes references to mint from the garden and banana trees. A hugely respected artist, Mounir has incorporated elements of Nubian music, jazz, and reggae in his sound over the years.

A generation-defining Gulf-North African collaboration, Lebanese-Emirati singer Diana Haddad and Algerian rai legend Khaled came together for a song that fused elements of Western pop with a darbuka drum and had simple lyrics that could be understood across the region, regardless of dialect. Haddad is a versatile artist who built a wide regional fanbase by performing in both Lebanese and Emiratit. Khaled, already an established Algerian icon and international superstar, gave this song an international boost.

The four members of Guitara Band — Fahad, Renad, Khaled, and Rahaf — formed in 2001 when they were students at the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts in Kuwait, and quickly released five albums in the early 2000s. “Ya Ghali” was their peak hit, combining a thumping Nineties-style house beat with traditional Khaleeji (i.e., of the Persian Gulf) rhythms. 

Rapper Wegz is currently having his moment. He has been the most-streamed Egyptian artist on Spotify since 2020, and he was the most-streamed artist across the entire region on the platform in 2022. That’s in large part due to “El Bakht” (“The Luck”), a melodic rap about a brokenhearted lover over a syncopated beat, strings, and plucked acoustic guitar. Though Wegz is known more for his trap music, “El Bakht” touched a nerve by going for a softer, sweeter tone.

Wael Kfoury has been a bankable star since the Nineties and remains one of the most popular in the region because of his silky tenor voice and his accessible love songs. The Lebanese crooner had many hits this century, but where many of his popular songs primarily dealt with love on a surface level, “Law Hobna Ghalta” stood out by being more vulnerable and emotional, combining piano, violin, and darbuka drum with the incredibly poetic lyrics, “If our love is a mistake, let us be wrong.” 

Dabke is a folk dance that combines circle and line dancing, typically performed at parties and other gatherings, and dabke music is the soundtrack to those dances, based in a specific drum pattern that emphasizes downbeats for dancers to step, kick, and stomp their feet. Fares Karam‘s “El Tannoura” remains one of the most played dabke songs. Unfortunately, it’s also one of the more misogynist. “El Tannoura,” meaning “the skirt” in Arabic, is about a Karam observing a seemingly carefree woman walking around with a short skirt. That sort of lyric is typical of the Lebanese singer, but it doesn’t take away from how memorable his songs can be. 

Egyptian mahraganat is a music of the people — an easily accessible and low-tech sound that combines elements of hip-hop and EDM into an enormously popular street music style. Hassan Shakosh and Omar Kamal helped popularize mahraganat outside of Egypt with this massive and controversial hit in 2020. With over 630 million views on YouTube, the song caused a firestorm in Egypt for some of its lyrics (“If you break up with me … I will drink alcohol and smoke weed”) and lead to a nationwide ban on mahraganat. That censorship did nothing to stop the success of “Mahragan Bent El Geran,” which gained widespread international attention.

Haifa Wehbe’s “El Wawa” remains one of the silliest, most fun pop songs in Arabic music, particularly because of the controversy it sparked upon release. Though its lyrics seem childish (“Look at the boo boo, kiss the boo boo, let the boo boo hea/When you kissed the boo boo you removed it/The boo boo disappeared,” goes the chorus), the adult-oriented content of the music video caused a bit of an uproar. The clip, in which Haifa appeared dressed as what many viewers deemed a “sexy babysitter,” sparked regional conversations about sexuality that continue to this day. Though the Lebanese singer has since solidified her status as more than just a shock artist, “El Wawa” left an indelible mark on music and culture. 

Egyptian actor turned singer Mohamed Ramadan’s music career was just getting going when he released this fun, silly, and unbelievably catchy song about drinking too much and having a hangover. Just his fourth single ever, “”Bum Bum” helped him become a massive star who has since collaborated with other major international artists.

Egyptian icon Hakim helped popularize jeel music — which incorporates elements of pop and reggae while maintaining a distinctive Egyptian sound — across the Middle East and North Africa with his fun, upbeat, dance-party hits. Already riding the success of memorable songs like “Bainy w Beinak” in the mid-Nineties and “El Salamou Aleikom” in 2002, Hakim hit big with the fun, high-energy “Ah Ya Alby.” That success help set up collaborations with artists like Stevie Wonder, the late James Brown, and Don Omar for the 2007 smash “Tigi Tigi,” which combined Arabic music and reggaeton.

This Saudi singer took a notable turn in his career when he released “Mashkalni.” At the time, the rhythms and instrumentation of the Persian Gulf were not as popular across the rest of the region. But Al-Majed changed that with this song, which featured a distinct Khaleeji (i.e., of the Persian Gulf) sound and a mesmerizing use of the mijwiz, a traditional Middle Eastern reed instrument.

This was the last song added on Lebanese singer Nawal Al Zoghbi’s 2000 album, El Layali. But when “El Layali” was released as a single, it became her signature hit. Al Zoghbi got her start on the popular singing competition show Studio El Fan, receiving praise for her powerful voice and impressive vocal range. She broke through in the Nineties with many hit songs, including a famous duet with fellow Lebanese singer Wael Kfoury, “Men Habibi Ana.” But “El Layali,” with its light dance beat, melodic guitar part, and repetitive handclap, cemented her pop status and even landed her an endorsement deal with Pepsi.

Lebanese singer Marwan Khoury quickly rose to regional fame with this moving, deeply poetic ballad. Khoury had been known more as a composer and songwriter, finding major success in the late Nineties writing two hit songs for fellow Lebanese singer Nawal Al Zoghbi. Poetry and romance have been major themes in Arabic music for centuries, and Khoury eloquently captured — and updated — that tradition with “Kel El Qasayed,” the opening piano notes of which are instantly recognizable for any Arabic music listener.

Egyptian singer Ruby took the Arabic pop scene by storm in 2005 with “Leih Beydary Keda,” not just because of its infectious melody and lyrics questioning the shyness and ignorance of someone who clearly loves her, but also because of its music video. At the time, Egyptians and many in the region deemed Ruby’s dancing in the video to be sexually provocative, nicknaming her “the girl on the bike” because she can be seen dancing on a stationary gym bike. But she blew past such criticism to boldly forge a path for her career. Along with continuing to release music, she’s also acted in popular television programs.

Elissa’s entry on this list came down to a toss-up between this brooding love ballad and the dance hit “Ayshalak,” both of which appeared on her third studio album, Ayshalak. But “Ajmal Ihssas” gets the nod for the way it set a standard, both for Arabic love songs and for causing controversy. The music video was banned in Egypt, and many conservative viewers and listeners did not appreciate the song’s depiction of a woman exerting control and power in a relationship. None of that did anything to stop the Lebanese singer, who has since become one of the region’s most successful pop artists.

Hussain Al Jassmi is one of the most popular Arabic singers to come out of the Persian Gulf region. His recent hit “Bel Bont El3areedh” is a beautiful fusion of darbuka drum, bright guitar strums, and beautiful lyrics that anyone can sing along with. The Emirati singer has had a string of huge songs since his debut album in 2002, including “Seta Al Sobh” and the wildly popular “Boshreit Kheir,” an ode to the Egyptian people.

This song has been so overplayed — in cafes and restaurants, at family gatherings and parties — that it’s become a bit of a lightning rod. You either still love it or you’re totally sick of it. Since its release in 2017, this earworm by Abu and Yousra has been impossible to escape. An intentionally cheesy love song with an infectious chorus, it was just Abu’s third studio single ever, and in a relatively short time, it was everywhere.

Sherine is considered an icon of Egyptian pop in the 2000s, thanks especially to the impact of “Sabry Aleil,” from her first solo studio album, Garh Tany. The song, with a thumping bass beat and a darbuka drum playing double time throughout, engages listeners with its chorus of “la la la’s” and Sherine’s powerful lyrics about running out of patience and not wanting to endure pain any longer. “Sabry Aleil” is currently having a renewed viral resurgence on TikTok, resulting in a 1,000 percent increase of streams on Spotify from November 2023 to January 2024.

A nationalistic rallying cry. A song played at gatherings to get the crowd dancing. A song that invokes both happiness and motivation. Of the songs on this list, none are as important right now as “Dammi Falastini” (“My Blood Is Palestinian”). As his voice booms over traditional Southwest Asian instruments, Mohammed Assaf delivers a high-energy song that instills a sense of unwavering pride in being Palestinian. “Dammi Falastini” has taken on a renewed resurgence with the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, an anthem celebrated by Palestinians and all Arabs.

Moroccan-Egyptian superstar Samira Said and Algerian icon Cheb Mami released a North African collaboration for the ages with “Youm Wara Youm,” setting both of them up for more success at the turn of the century. The song blends Arab instrumentation over a pop-electronic beat. After sweeping the region with this pop dance hit, Said was chosen as Best Middle Eastern Singer by BBC Radio 3 Awards in World Music in 2003.

After having colossal success in his home country of Tunisia, Saber Rebai broke out regionally in 2000 with his interpretation of the folk song “Sidi Mansour,” produced by iconic Egyptian-Libyan singer Hamid Al Shaeri. While the song itself has existed for hundreds of years and been covered by many artists over generations, Rebai’s version quickly garnered widespread attention and appreciation beyond Tunisia’s borders because of a pop melody and an arrangement that appealed to a broader audience.

The opening notes of acoustic piano in “Nasini El Dounia” are as recognizable as anything else in Arabic pop music. Lebanese hitmaker Ragheb Alama tugged at the heartstrings of listeners with this beautiful ballad, which has been covered and sung by many Arab artists. Alama has had an illustrious career going back to the Eighties, and his music is beloved by millions thanks to his smooth tenor voice and his songs’ easy-to-sing hooks like in 2018’s “Elli Baana.”

A beautifully heartbreaking song about a distant love and a lover longing to ease the pain of physical separation, “Ya Ghayeb” remains one of the most popular love songs by Lebanese crooner Fadel Shaker. Shaker was a fixture in Arabic pop music in the early 2000s, with other hit love songs like “Ma’aoul” and “Akhedny Maak,” a duet with fellow Lebanese pop singer Yara. Years later, up-and-coming pop singers like Morocco’s Inez continue to cover the song.

Riding the wave of his landmark late Nineties album Sahrany, Egyptian singer Ehab Tawfik followed up that success with this 2002 dance banger. Over 20 years later, no diaspora wedding playlist is complete without “Allah Aleik Ya Sidy.” Tawfik has been a hitmaking machine since the 1980s, but the high-energy “Allah Aleik Ya Sidy” really touched a nerve thanks to its fast-paced drums, its booming, melodic intro (which is repeated throughout the song), and its high-energy chorus.

This cross-cultural collaboration by Egyptian pop star Hisham Abbas features legendary Indian singer Bombay Jayashri in what is arguably one of the most popular dance songs ever in the Middle East, North Africa, and the diaspora. “Habibi Dah” is sung in both Arabic and Hindi, combining Arab and Indian melodies in a thrilling fusion that also features the infectious call-and-response, “habibi dah.” Abbas continued to release popular upbeat music in the 2000s, including hits like “Fenoh” in 2001 and “Ma Tebatalash” in 2009.

Raï music, which originated in the Algerian city of Oran and is notable as a genre for challenging societal and cultural norms, starts with iconic singer Khaled, who has become synonymous with the genre thanks in large part to his ability to have broad international appeal. Arriving after what felt like a few years since he’d had a major solo smash, his 2012 summer hit “C’est La Vie” was somewhat of a “comeback” for an artist who showed he can still create timeless classics. Khaled collaborated with powerhouse Moroccan producer RedOne for the bilingual French-Algerian Darija song, complete with a tropical pop-house beat. Marc Anthony later had an international hit with a Spanish-language cover of “C’est La Vie,” which he retitled “Vivir Mi Vida.”

You can’t talk about 21st-century Arabic pop music without including Lebanese superstar Nancy Ajram, who first broke through in a big way with her 2003 album, Ya Salam. The singer, considered by many listeners throughout the Arab world to be the “queen of pop,” released “Ya Tabtab Wa Dallaa” right at the height of her success. Ajram had been the center of faux controversy due to the “provocative” music videos she put out early in her career, most notably with the clip for her hit 2003 song “Akhasmak Ah,” which was banned at the time by the Egyptian Parliament. In the music video for “Ya Tabtab Wa Dallaa,” Ajram dresses in full clown makeup and costume, seeming to poke fun at her ongoing notoriety. Ajram revolutionized music video roles and expectations for women artists, and “Ya Tabtab” remains one of her most recognizable songs among both Arabic and non-Arabic speakers.

Egyptian singer Amr Diab is arguably the king of Arabic pop music, an artist who has consistently released hit song after hit song throughout his decadeslong career. “Tamally Maak” is his finest hour: Crooning over a slow summery guitar melody, Diab sings about a relationship that’s full of shared longing. “Tamally Maak,” which means “Always With You,” continues to have a massive impact — not just on Arabic music, but globally as well. The song has since been covered or interpreted into 15 other languages. Many other 21st-century Diab songs could have also been included here, both for their massive popularity and widespread influence, including “Wala Ala Baloh,” “Ana Ayesh,” and “Leily Nahary.” But there’s something uniquely — and universally — special about “Tamally Maak.”