Known as 'the queen of classic music', Nawal El Kuwaitia is a Middle Eastern pop icon who has been wowing audiences in Egypt, Lebanon and across the Persian Gulf States since the early 1980s. Born in Kuwait City in 1966, she grew up listening to the great Egyptian songstress Uum Kulthum before studying at the National Music Institute, where she worked with composer Rashid Al-Khadr and poet/songwriter Abdullatif Al-Banay. Together they mixed African, Indian, Iranian and Bedouin sounds into the contemporary style of Gulf music known as Khaliji, and Nawal's songs Yooh Yah Yooh (Oh What Am I Experiencing) and Tebarra (Abandon) started to build her popularity. Naming all of her albums after herself and the year they were made (starting with Nawal 1984), she overcame severe stage fright and a five year hiatus to become a major star in the 1990s. Her duet with Saudi singer Abdullah Rashad, Kan Widdi Niltiki (I Wish We Could Have Met), was, in particular, a big success and she also recorded with Abdallah Al Rowaished and Fadel Shaker as well as performing in the Opera Of The Unification Knight at the Al Janadiriyah Festival in Saudi Arabia. The later album Nawal 2009 produced the single Mo Leyah (At All), which topped the Egyptian charts, and her rich, soulful voice remains much loved within the world music community.
