A thread for pop with Arabic influences from the Balkans, Transcaucasia, North Africa and the Middle East

This thread is inspired by Mata Hari, the Azerbaijani entry into this year's Eurovision (see the Eurovision 2020/2021 thread), which I somewhat clumsily described as "Europop with Middle Eastern flourishes."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSiZmR1c7Q4

Ideally I would like the focus to be current-sounding pop (i.e., not traditional songs from the past ~5 years) with Arabic elements (strings, vocal style, etc). But also not opposed to it evolving into something different — let's see what other people around here are into :)

Other songs that have caught my attention recently:

Dhurata Dora (Kosovo) ft. Soolking (Algeria) - Zemër

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCpvmHi1gxU

Sura Iskenderli (Turkey) - Dinle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrlOvPCVp-E

Eleni Foureira (Greece) - Fuego (thanks brestcrawl!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54PHdAEmJkM

Oops, wrong link on the Sura Iskenderli track. Here it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7nYaR0u7Eg

Another excellent track by Soolking and Dadju (France):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReK5Z0RCbSY

Here is a short playlist (of mostly Albanian artists) I also shared on the Eurovision thread, if anyone is interested.

last year's Efendi entry was the fantastic CleopatRRRRa

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0VzBCvO1Wk

Woo, thanks for starting this thread, daavid. I will mostly be stealing all your songs for myself but hopefully I'll have a few things to contribute in return.

Honestly, I've just started digging into this type of music myself so I'll also be largely relying on other posters :)

I only know what makes it to Eurovision so will also be paying attention

not sure this is exactly what daavid's looking for but I just found Bashkortostan's entry for last year's Turkvision Song Contest and I love it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaWx9cuPciw

First example that popped into my head is this one, from one of the biggest contemporary stars of Bosnian traditional singing (and the one that introduced gender fluidity into it for the first time), Božo Vrećo (here in collab with Serbian producer/singer, Marko Louis):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3TKHEht1ng

not sure this is exactly what daavid's looking for but I just found Bashkortostan's entry for last year's Turkvision Song Contest and I love it

Yes it is!

Would love to know more about Balkan rap. I was watching videos about the Pink Panthers, a Serbian luxury goods theft ring, and they had some awesome music, but what I've found on Spotify sucks. I do like Balkan music!

Balti - Ya Lili feat. Hamouda (Tunisia)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJHPpTYtIqk

I remember this being a crossover hit a few years ago.

“Sekret” by Ronela Hajati, this year’s Albanian Eurovision entry, is more than worth a thread revive. There’s several different versions to choose from - I can’t, so here’s all three of them:

the original all-Albanian version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NczxScmhajw

live performance in the national final, partly in English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuLIDqZ3waQ

the brand new revamped international video version, English + Albanian and featuring some strategically interspersed Spanish elements: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMu47raqbcc

^I love this! Prefer the Albanian version.

Also, this one from Cyprus, which I think is fitting for the thread:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GM8CY08UT6I

Eurovision strikes again:

Albania always a favourite of mine, but this year it looked like they botched it with a mess of a song [update: that was the live version] - but lo and behold, they dusted it off and remixed it, and now it sounds awesome, love the drill bass (!) that's in there at some points, just a fabulous melange of modern and traditional sounds and instruments:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mp8OG4ApocI
Albina & Familja Kelmendi • Duje