How Nancy Ajram became the most-streamed female voice in Arab pop
Nancy Ajram started singing with her grandmother at eight, won a televised talent contest at twelve and had a record deal with EMI by fifteen. A risqué video for Akhasmak Ah in 2002 made her a star, and she later became Coca-Cola's first and only female spokesperson in the Arab world.
Born on May 16, 1983, into a Lebanese Orthodox Christian family in Achrafieh, Beirut, she was the eldest of three children. In 1995 she entered the Future TV talent show Stars of the Future and took a gold medal in the tarab category with an Umm Kulthum song. Though under 18, she was admitted to Lebanon's syndicate of professional artists, and she put out a first single in 1996 and a debut album, Mihtagalak, in 1998.
The turn came in early 2002, when she signed with the producer and manager Jiji Lamara, who steered her away from a demure image. The video for Akhasmak Ah cast her as a flirtatious café manager in the style of old Egyptian films; critics objected and several channels planned to ban it, but the song propelled her third album, Ya Salam, to best-seller status in 2003. Ah W Noss, released on April 14, 2004, confirmed her as an A-list star.
Coca-Cola then signed her for the Middle East and North Africa, and several of her Coke anthems became hits. Her sixth album, Betfakkar Fi Eih, in 2008, brought a World Music Award as best-selling Middle Eastern artist, making her the youngest Arab winner. She had sold over 30 million records by 2007 and was named the region's best-selling female singer of the 2000s; she has released twelve studio albums, two of them for children.
Her Egyptian hits made her hugely popular in Egypt, to which she has dedicated seven patriotic songs. She judged Arab Idol on MBC from 2013 to 2017 and spent three seasons, spanning 2016 to 2020, as a coach on The Voice Kids Arabia. In that final year she was the most-streamed Arab female artist on Spotify, with over 100 million plays, ahead of Fairuz at 67 million.
Source: Nancy Ajram
