Amr Diab

Amr Diab, the Port Said-born singer, composer and actor, has been named the King of Arabic Pop and is recognised as the best-selling Middle Eastern artist. Raised in a middle-class family with roots in the Nile Delta, he took a music degree at the Cairo Academy of Arts in 1986. Michael Frishkopf has described his work as a new concept of Mediterranean music, blending Western and Middle Eastern rhythms, with the song 'Nour El Ain' as its key example.

His debut, Ya Tareeq, came out in 1983, followed by a run of releases with Delta Sound including Hala Hala in 1986. The 1996 album Nour El Ain, his first with Alam El Phan, won him his first World Music Award and carried him beyond the Arabic-speaking world. A move to Rotana Records in 2004 led to Kammel Kalamak the following year, and Shoft El Ayam reached number one on Billboard's World Albums chart in 2014. More recently came the album Makanak in December 2023, and in 2024 Rolling Stone placed 'Tamally Maak' first on its list of the 50 best Arabic pop songs of the 21st century.