Elyanna makes history at Coachella. Here’s how the Palestinian-Chilean singer is taking Arabic music global

“It was very special,” Elyanna, who is set to perform at the Opera House in Toronto on Sunday, told the Star ahead of her second Coachella performance last spring. “I can see the crowd, I can see that they have keffiyehs on and they are waving the Palestinian flag. I literally cried onstage, which is crazy — that never happened to me.”

Equipped with a dynamic vocal range and an assured sense of style, the 21-year-old singer’s music blends traditional elements of Middle Eastern pop music — Arabic vocal scales, traditional instruments like the oud or darbuka — with R&B, reggae and hip hop. The result is both compelling and highly marketable, placing Elyanna at the vanguard of a new generation of artists who seem poised to take Arabic music to new international heights.

“For me, she is the Arab Rihanna,” said Masa Qzaih, a 24-year-old software engineer who lives in Nablus, a Palestinian city in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. “Not many people from countries outside the Middle East hear or look up what’s going on here. It’s important that she’s sharing our story.”

Wearing a flowing white cut-out dress, and flanked by backup singers and a live band, Elyanna included hits like “Ghareeb Alay” and “Ana Lahale” in her 45-minute set, and a cover of the classic Egyptian ballad “Awhak,” which she performed with her brother and collaborator Feras.

“For me to be there … singing in my own language and doing my own dance styles is too crazy,” she said. “We literally made history last Saturday and we’re going to make it again next Saturday.”

Elyanna’s journey from Nazareth to California

Elyanna, whose full name is Elian Marjieh, was born and raised in Nazareth, a predominantly Arab city in Israel that is home to thousands of Palestinians. She spent her Christmases in Chile, where she had family on her father’s side.

“I feel like I grew up between these two cultures,” she said.

As a child, Elyanna grew up listening to Middle Eastern pop stars from Egypt and Lebanon like Fairuz, Sherine and Nancy Ajram, but was also immersed in traditional Palestinian culture and music.

“I remember going to weddings where my grandpa — he does zajal (a traditional form of Middle Eastern poetry) — he would do a freestyle in Arabic. The lyrics are not written or prepared, they would just come out right out of him. That’s just a raw talent, you know what I mean? So I’m very inspired by it, by all these things.”

Encouraged by Feras, she began posting cover songs on SoundCloud. At age 15, she and her family moved to California to pursue her music career.

As her audience grew, Elyanna connected with Wassim Slaiby, a Lebanese-Canadian music executive and industry powerhouse. Known as “Sal,” Slaiby is the founder of XO Records, and the primary manager for international acts like The Weeknd, NAV and Belly. Sal quickly signed Elyanna to his SALXCO management company, where she was mentored by Nasri, a Palestinian-Canadian producer and the frontman for the Toronto band Magic!, and the Lebanese-Canadian R&B artist Massari.

“Elyanna is the true definition of a diamond in the rough,” Massari said, explaining how he and Elyanna wrote the 2020 song “Ana Lahale” (“I’m alone”) during their first studio session. The upbeat R&B track, which mixes Arabic and English vocals, has racked up over 18 million streams on Spotify and more than 13 million streams on YouTube.

“I found out that this was her first time ever in a recording studio,” he said. “From that moment on, I knew she was destined for greatness.”

“(Massari) is definitely a big brother to me,” Elyanna said. “I only had, like, 3,000 followers at that time, but he still wanted to jump on a song with me. He wanted to support me as a young artist and I appreciate that forever.”

Since the release of “Ana Lahale,” Elyanna has released two EPs and, in 2021, became one of the first signees to Universal Arabic Music, Slaiby’s newly formed record imprint dedicated to elevating Arabic-language music.

Her latest project, “Elyanna 2,” showcases her stylistic range and evolving sound. Released last March, the EP features a reggae-infused single with Tunisian singer Balti (“Ghareeb Alay”), a heart-wrenching power ballad (“Fenee”) and an Arabic cover of the Édith Piaf classic “La Vie en rose.”

It seems Elyanna is on track to become a major crossover success.

“I’m working on my debut album right now and it’s got a very unique sound,” she said, listing M.I.A., Bad Bunny, The Weeknd and Kanye West as influences. “It’s got so much attitude and it’s got so much swag.”

K-pop and Afrobeats have gone global. Is Arabic music the next big thing?

For years, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival was primarily an indie rock festival, with a spattering of hip hop or electronic dance music. Recently, the festival has evolved into something far more eclectic, reflecting the increasingly diverse, globalized music tastes of younger listeners.

The 2023 lineup featured a long list of international artists, including BLACKPINK, the first Korean act to headline; Bad Bunny, the first Latin artist headliner; and Diljit Dosanjh, the first Punjabi artist to perform at Coachella.

Given the recent explosion of global genres like Afrobeats, K-pop and reggaeton, it feels like Arabic music is primed to be the next big thing.

Last year, Nancy Ajram collaborated with DJ Marshmello on the track “Sah Sah,” which became the first Arabic song to appear on Billboard’s U.S. Dance Chart. In the fall, Lebanese singer Hiba Tawaji teamed up with Puerto Rican star Luis Fonsi on the hit “Que Sera Sera (Law Nebka Sawa).”

“We’re now on the cusp of creating a new genre of music,” Massari said. “Since the beginning of my career, Sal and I had a vision of having Arabic music become an international sound. It’s been a couple of decades of us putting together all our experiences and dedication to create something that is greater than ourselves. Elyanna is living proof of that dream coming to reality.”

For fans like Masa Qzaih, the software engineer from Nablus, Elyanna represents something bigger than music.

“I always feel proud seeing Palestinian women representing us worldwide, especially when the artist is very proud of the place they come from,” she said. “I hate that we are always seen as just people who live under occupation. We are more than that.”

For Sam Agha, a Palestinian-Canadian from Toronto, Elyanna waving the keffiyeh over the audience at the end of her set was an important moment.

“It raises our heads, really,” Agha said. “A lot of Palestinian symbolism has been curtailed in some contexts over time. Even the flag, you can’t wave it freely in some countries. Her being able to do that and do it proudly, and for her to repopularize the keffiyeh, definitely makes us proud.”

Elyanna said she is often asked why she doesn’t live or perform in the Middle East.

“I feel like I have a bigger purpose,” she explained. “The Middle East is already familiar with Arabic, we get it … We want to show the other side of the world. We want to show them our culture.

“And that’s literally happening. So I guess we were making the right moves.”

Editor’s note: April 22, 2023. This story has been updated to reflect that Nazareth is a predominantly Arab city in Israel that is home to thousands of Palestinians.