FELUKAH RELEASES HIBISKISS AND SAHARA WITH LANA LUBANY & TÄRA

Felukah

Felukah

Lana Lubany

Felukah

TÄRA

Summary:

• Felukah released her nine-track album Hibiskiss on October 9.
• SAHARA features Lana Lubany and TÄRA, and its music video came out the same day.
• Her world tour opens in London on October 12.

Felukah released her album Hibiskiss on October 9. The nine-track record follows her return to Egypt in April, after almost nine years in New York. She rehearsed for the tour at Waha Studios, a recording space she recently opened in Cairo. The tour opens in London on October 12.

The album takes its name from the hibiscus flower and connects Cairo and New York. The themes include women’s issues, trouble in the music industry, love and loss, and the experience of an Arab woman who builds a career in the West and then returns home.

Gloria Kaiyi Hui, a producer based in New York, worked on most of the production. Felukah built the record around collaborators from different cultures who work in several languages. Xiuhtezcatl, an indigenous artist and activist from Xochimilco, Mexico, appears on Azucar, a single released on September 18. The song moves between Arabic, Spanish and English and deals with homelands, borders and the sweetness found inside struggle.

SAHARA features Lana Lubany, a Palestinian singer based in London, and TÄRA, a Palestinian-Italian artist. A music video for the song was published on the day of the album release. Start there if you want to hear the collaborations first. Another track, Shut Up Your Mouse, samples Mona Al-Beheiri, the Egyptian woman who drew wide attention in 2014 for a televised remark aimed at then US President Barack Obama. The song responds to the way Arab women are described in the West.

Felukah is an Egyptian rapper, singer, poet and activist. She is known as the Arabfuturist songstress. Her work has led to opportunities with the FIFA World Cup and Harvard University. She also said she wants to make an Arabic jazz album and move into film and acting.