Nancy Ajram

An Arabic singer from Lebanon, Nancy Ajram was among the Middle East’s biggest pop stars of the new millennium. After releasing her first album, Mihtagalak, in 1998, she became well known for her high-profile commercial sponsorships as well as for flashy promotional videos for hits including 2002′s “Akhasmak Ah” from the next year’s Ya Salam LP. Her 2008 release, Betfakkar Fi Eih?!, resulted in a World Music Award for World’s Best-Selling Middle Eastern Artist. In between hit dance-pop albums, she also released children’s music such as 2012′s Super Nancy. By that time, Ajram had switched to a numeric system for her pop records, with Nancy 8 arriving in 2014 and Nancy 10 marking her 12th album overall in 2021. A year later, her collaboration with DJ Marshmello, “Sah Sah,” became the first Arab track to appear on Billboard’s Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart.
Born on May 16, 1983, in Beirut, Ajram participated in singing competitions as a child, including some on television. She made her EMI debut in 1998 with Mihtagalak at the age of 15. It became a minor hit across the Arab world but sold particularly well Lebanon and Egypt with a push from lead single “Mitagalak,” a Top Ten charter in her home country. Her second album, Sheel Oyoonak Anni, was a bigger hit in 2001, but it was her third LP, 2003′s Ya Salam, that went platinum in multiple countries with help from her biggest hit to date, “Akhasmak Ah,” and its popular music video. From this point onward, Ajram made videos a regular practice, filming several for each album. Released in 2004, fourth LP Ah W Noss propelled her stardom further upward, and in 2005, she was chosen as a soda company spokesperson (à la Arabic pop star Elissa, who sponsored a rival brand at the time).
Parting ways with EMI, Ajram had less success with 2006′s Ya Tabtab...Wa Dallaa, which she followed with her first children’s album, Shakhbat Shakhabit, the next year. She started her own In2Musica label for the pop album Betfakkar Fi Eih?! (2008), which not only led to a surge in sales but earned the singer a World Music Award for World’s Best-Selling Middle Eastern Artist. Remaining on In2Musica, she delivered her first numbered pop album, Nancy 7, in 2010 and went multi-platinum in Lebanon, Egypt, and the UAE on the way to selling (well over) six million units for the first time. She followed that with another children’s album, 2012′s Super Nancy, before returning with Nancy 8 in 2014. As was her practice throughout her career, it saw her working with several producers on a mix of dance-pop, ballads, and contemporary pop. It debuted at number ten on the Billboard World Albums chart. Nancy 9 followed on In2Musica in 2017, with Nancy 10 appearing in 2021 with an accompanying promotional campaign in New York’s Times Square. A non-album single, “Sah Sah,” a collaboration with Marshmello, topped the streaming charts in the Middle East in addition to becoming the first Arab track to make it onto Billboard’s Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart, where it spent a week at number 38. ~ Marcy Donelson & Jason Birchmeier