Ahmed Fakroun

Ahmed Fakroun is a singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist from Benghazi, Libya, born in 1953. A pioneer of modern Arabic world music, he rose to prominence in the 1970s playing bass, harmonica, guitar, piano, oud, and saz. His early albums Awedni (1974, produced in London) and Nisyan (1977, arranged with Nicolas Vangelis in Italy) established him as a boundary-crossing artist. His music fuses French synth-pop, disco, North African rhythms, and Arabic poetry into a hypnotic sound all his own. His 1983 album Mots D'Amour is regarded as a global fusion classic, and the track "Soleil Soleil" brought him international fame, particularly in South America. Rediscovered by the global DJ community in the 2000s, Fakroun's records became sought-after collector items and he continues to release new material from his home studio.