In a Dubai recording studio, hijab-clad Ghaliaa Chaker tunes her guitar and belts out original songs as she builds a career that is turning heads for more than just her music.
The 26-year-old Syrian, who was raised in the United Arab Emirates, has become a social media sensation, with 437,000 followers on Instagram and millions of views on her YouTube channel.
She offers not only a unique sound but also an unusual look in a region where artists who wear the hijab, the head covering characteristic of Muslim women, are few and far between.
“I hope that I have paved the way for other” hijabi singers, Chaker told AFP at the studio.
“It is a very beautiful thing to know that you have […] given a push to a girl who has many dreams and is unable to achieve them because she has never seen another girl do the same thing.”
Chaker, a keen motorbike rider who is part of an all-hijabi biker squad in Dubai, began composing and writing lyrics at the age of 16.
She drew inspiration from Nedaa Shrara, a veiled Jordanian singer who won “The Voice”, the Arabic version of the popular TV talent show, in 2015.
Shrara had stirred controversy among some Arab fans who were not accustomed to seeing a singer wearing the head covering.
But for Chaker, who says she often receives criticism online, Shrara was a symbol of “self-confidence”.
After seeing her, “I said to myself that I can do it too”, Chaker said.
Chaker’s first song, composed in English, was picked up by Dubai radio stations in 2018, marking the start of her musical career.
She now sings mostly in Arabic, at a time when the regional music scene is witnessing the rise of young talents with innovative sounds.
The green-eyed singer said the headscarf has never been an obstacle in her life.
“There is nothing that I have wanted to do and not done because I wear the veil,” Chaker said.
However, the issue of women singing has always been controversial in conservative Islamic societies.
Chaker said her immediate family has always supported her, but relatives in Syria were “very surprised at first”, mainly because they feared how people would react.
She said she receives a lot of “negative comments” on social media, including from family and friends.
“It bothers me of course, but I try to remember the positive comments and how much people love my music,” she said.
Chaker traces her artistic influences to her early upbringing in Al Ain, a former desert oasis and now a city in Abu Dhabi, one of the UAE’s seven sheikhdoms.
At home, her father blasted Arab singers such as Fairouz, an iconic Lebanese singer, and Egyptian diva Umm Kalthoum. Chaker’s mother preferred Western music including Elvis Presley.
“The music mixture in the house was always rich,” she said, influencing her sound which she describes as a mix of R&B, hip hop, electro pop, indie and jazz.
A multi-instrumentalist, Chaker credits her father with her love of the drums, guitar and piano, all instruments that she plays.
Instead of gifting her toys as a child, he would buy her new instruments, she said.
The Middle Eastern darbuka drum is “the closest to my heart because I often played it with my father who loves it very much and it is the basis of oriental rhythm”, she said.
In addition to Arabic and English, Chaker sometimes sings in Turkish, Armenian and Persian.
The singer, who performed in the Lebanese capital Beirut in August, said she wants to take her music beyond the Middle East.
“It is very important to me that my music is heard in Europe, in America, in Australia, in the whole world, maybe even in Latin America,” she said, adding that she aspires to “collaborate with many artists from different countries”.
“It is time for the Western world to know how beautiful our music is.”
