“There’s a fiery desire in my heart to challenge the one image people have of what an Arab woman is,” rising star ABIR tells Billboard.
Born Abir Haronni in Fez, Morocco, ABIR moved to Arlington, Virginia when she was six. Even though she grew up surrounded by different cultures, the singer recalls that she “struggled with accepting my own.”
But today (Aug. 7), she’s releasing her second EP Heat, a collection of seven songs she proudly describes as “Arab pop" and follows her 2018 EP Mint.
The EP is accompanied by visuals for singles “Inferno” and “Yallah,” with the latter premiering today. Last winter, both music videos were shot on location in the Moroccan desert just outside of Marrakech and brought to life by a team of all Arab creatives.
When ABIR met producer Mick Schultz in May 2019, she felt like she “found the person who can bring this vision for the EP to life.” In the studio, they experimented with North African instruments and “created a soundscape that represented me and my stories,” she adds. Both lyrically and visually, the resulting project is an unapologetic exploration of what a modern Arab woman can be.
As ABIR recalls her earliest musical memories, she breaks into song mid-interview and hits the high notes to “She Will Be Loved” by Maroon 5, though she’s quick to clarify that her own music and vocal style was much more inspired by the greats: Etta James, Whitney Houston, and Beyoncé. Her pop foundation came from car rides with her father, who owned a car service company and would play everything from Arab music to jazz to Bruce Springsteen while driving clients around. When he was off the clock, ABIR would sit in the back seat “mimicking the s--t out of those songs, until eventually I just learned how to sing.” Following graduation from George Mason University in 2016, ABIR moved to New York to “get my voice out there.”
Soon after graduation, ABIR independently uploaded her first solo single, “Girls,” on Soundcloud, Spotify and Apple Music. She recalls how, at the time, “all the DSPs [Digital Service Providers] were opening up to independent artists” -- and her track was quickly featured on Apple Music’s Beats of the Week playlist thanks to early support from A&R executive Karlie Hustle and Ebro Darden. Meanwhile, ABIR’s manager, Frank Hendler -- who reached out on Instagram in 2013 after seeing a clip of her covering “B--ch, Don’t Kill My Vibe” -- shared her work with everyone who frequented his Manhattan recording studio, Blast Off Productions. In 2017, ABIR was fielding interest from other labels, but signed with Atlantic because “they wanted more of the music that I was making myself, and didn’t try to change me.”
Though ABIR’s second EP only arrived today, she’s already back to work in Los Angeles, where she temporarily relocated during the pandemic. “It’s a continuous experiment,” she says of making music, revealing that her goal is to put out new material every four to six weeks. It’s a rapid pace she’s never maintained before, but she hopes in doing so it will keep her momentum going -- especially while the live industry is on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic. “Now that I feel so confident in my process and who I am, we’re on a roll.”
