There has been a lot of visual changes in the Middle Eastern music scene. More Arab women singers are presenting themselves in provocative terms, as figures who express themselves through fashion, movement and voice.
Nawal Zoghby appeared in a video dressed in a tight revealing leather outfit. She was backed up by a trio of women dressed in leather. Suzanne Tamim offered a video in which she spent most of the running time striking a series of poses in tight outfits. Haifa Wehbe video shows her dancing in a rain-soaked outfit while staring into the camera with her sultriest expression.
This new genre of Arab music videos is originating in the Arab community. Rotana, the recording label for all these acts, is based in Dubai. Rotana’s acts can be seen throughout the Arab world. Most of the video production houses are in Lebanon, and the videos’ credits reflect diverse crews of Muslim, Christian Arabs and Turks. The most notable director of these videos is Said El-Marouk, a Muslim filmmaker based in Germany whose work stands out because of its scale, spectacle, and excess.
Muslim women singers are also starting to express themselves more freely to Muslim communities. For instance, Samr released a video in which she appears dressed as the bride in a traditional Mahgrebian wedding. Although she dresses modestly and is rather conservative in her dance, her song is about her happy anticipation of her wedding night. Samr winks repeatedly at the audience, rolls her eyes happily and alludes gently to her honeymoon and first night as a married couple.
There is a revolution going on in popular Arabic music videos. These social and cultural changes are visible in songs and videos by men and women.