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In 2021 an unknown Sri Lankan singer named Yohani released the single Manike Mage Hithe, a viral smash which hit over 190 million views on YouTube in a few months, and sung in her native Singhalese. This was an indie release, with no corporate backing. It has since been covered in several languages, with the Hindi version currently at +200m streams on Spotify. By 2022 at PopArabia we signed 7liwa, a pioneer of the growing Moroccan hip hop scene and begun work on his long awaited album CHAMPION. 7liwa was a Yohani fan and so we brought these artists from two different worlds together, the result of that is I believe the first Arabic/ Singhalese Afrobeat collaboration, a banger called Kolla Nhar Released a couple of weeks ago now, the video is already at +1m views and has been charting throughout North Africa and the Middle East, with fan reaction videos coming from India to the Middle East & the UK. Back in the day, anything outside of the frame of ‘Anglo-American’ music was considered ‘World Music’; a lazy term which in many ways marginalized the output from anyone who didn’t fit into that box. The era of music streaming and rise of social media platforms - going direct to fans has led to an emergence of local music scenes, influenced by the sounds of the West but incorporating their own distinct cultural identity, taking music and pop culture as we know it to new places. Places that frankly are much more interesting to me than the formulaic pop that global audiences have tired of. Pop culture itself is changing, evolving and that is a good thing. It is becoming more inclusive, more diverse and reflective of a global population with something to say. This is not about one sound, but many sounds - and something I’m proud to say we are on the forefront of investing in at PopArabia. The Middle East and emerging markets will be responsible for shaping how we perceive pop culture evolving and for those of us in the front lines, there couldn’t be a more exciting time to be in the music business, to bring these artists and their music to the fore. Here we are flying that flag in Times Square this past week celebrating our first million views on YouTube! twofour54 Abu Dhabi - Media and Entertainment Hub Reservoir Media Management, Inc. PopArabia #music #musicindustry #NorthAfrica #MENA #SriLanka #EmergingMarkets #Label #Publisher #global #NYC #TimesSquare #Pop #Afrobeat #HipHop #UAE #AbuDhabi #YouTube #Spotify #musicstreaming #MiddleEast