When independent Moroccan-Italian singer-songwriter Abderrahman, known as NABD , looks back on his musical journey, he traces it first to what he heard at home.
"I was raised hearing my mom singing all over the house," he tells The New Arab , adding that this "helped shape a big vocal range" and gave him "a close relationship with classical Arabic music."
From that early home environment, NABD moved into more formal musical training as a child. He explains that he joined a choir when he was around ten years old and stayed until he was 16, performing classical Arabic and Shaami songs, with Shaami referring to music from al-Shām, the historical Levant region that includes countries such as Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine.
Alongside that musical education, he describes a wider cultural and political atmosphere at home that also shaped what he listened to.
"With my parents, we used to listen a lot to traditional music with poetry," he says. "We also listened to Palestinian artists, as my parents strongly supported the Palestinian cause. We called these 'Aghani thawra' — rebel songs we used to listen to during the Second Intifada in the early 2000s."
After that early period of musical training, NABD stepped away from music for a time and considered a different path.
He says, "I wanted to become an Arabic teacher," and during that period, he studied Arabic and Quranic sciences. This, he says, gave him "a strong grounding in Arabic knowledge" that still informs his writing today.
His return to music came later and was shaped by watching Arab Idol around 2013, which he describes as a turning point. "I was really inspired by the story of the Palestinian contestant Mohammed Assaf," he explains.
"That was the moment I realised I could try something similar. I wanted to do something on that level."
By the time he began releasing music in 2018, NABD says he was still experimenting with different directions rather than working within a fixed style. "I was trying out different genres," he says, explaining that he first worked in classical Arabic before moving on to explore the Moroccan scene and write in Moroccan dialect.
Over time, that period of experimentation settled into a clearer approach to his sound: "Last year, I started to understand what I do best. I like combining Moroccan dialect with poetry I've written myself."
That approach, he says, is particularly clear in his most recent single, Sikkin , where he uses sharp imagery to describe a woman's beauty.
"I describe her beauty as something sharp, like a knife," he explains, referring to the word 'Sikkin', the traditional Arabic knife referenced in the track.
Building on that, NABD also highlights the layered linguistic texture running throughout the song, with multiple influences working alongside one another.
"I was really trying to combine Moroccan words and Arabic phrases," he says. "In the track, you can hear classical Arabic, Moroccan dialect, and also Shaami influences."
He also points to a line that holds particular personal meaning for him: "I only knew love when I came to know you," noting that it is attributed to Rabia al-Adawiyya (c. 717–801 CE), also known as Rabia al-Basri, an 8th-century Arab Sufi saint and mystic from Basra, Iraq who is renowned for establishing the concept of Ishq-e-Haqiqi (Divine Love), which emphasises worshipping God purely for His own sake rather than out of fear of hell or hope of paradise. View this post on Instagram A post shared by NABD (@nabd_art) Breakups, memory, and everything in between Speaking more broadly about identity, NABD describes how he mixes languages and influences in his music as rooted in his personal background.
He talks about growing up between places as something that shaped how he understands belonging, saying, "Living abroad puts you in a middle place where you don't really know where you belong," and clarifying that for him it was never about being split between two identities, but more about feeling connected to "many Arabic countries."
Because of that, choosing a language for his music didn't come easily and took time to settle on.
He recalls that "at the beginning it was hard to decide to sing in Moroccan dialect," even though it felt closest to him, before reaching a point where he stopped treating it as a single choice and instead embraced both sides, saying "this year I decided I have to accept both identities — singing in classical Arabic and mixing it with Moroccan words and expressions."
When it comes to writing, NABD naturally gravitates towards familiar emotional territory, shaped by his upbringing around poetry.
"I like to talk about romantic and love songs because I grew up with poetry," he says, adding that this also feeds into the way he constructs his lyrics, where rhythm and language are central: "I like to rhyme every sentence and bring it back with an Arabic ending."
Throughout his work, he returns to a consistent emotional space rather than telling structured stories, focusing on themes of separation, memory, and absence — what he describes as "breakups, missing someone, or that shadow following you" — emphasising sustaining a feeling across a track.
That same approach carries over into his first EP, released in January 2025 under the title FEL BAL (meaning 'on the mind' in English), a five-track project that came together over a long period rather than in a single creative phase.
"Three of the songs were finished a long time before," he says, also admitting, "I usually struggle a lot with my artistic identity."
That uncertainty also plays into how he releases music, with timing often shifting depending on how he feels about the work. "Sometimes I release songs I finished earlier because something has changed in the journey," he says, noting that "you don't always feel the same way about a song over time."
Even so, he sees the EP as a key step in his journey, something he had been working towards for years. "I always wanted to release a project," he says, adding that while it felt like a major milestone, the process surprised him: "I thought it was a big thing, but when I did it, I realised it's simple in some ways, but still hard to put five songs together."
The tracks themselves are linked through recurring themes, with Masafat focused on distance in relationships and emotional separation, something he says he has experienced more than once, while Zinek draws from a more personal memory, written about "a Moroccan girl I used to know," where he describes her beauty as something "you can't find on this Earth." Building what comes next Looking ahead, NABD says his next releases continue from the direction he has recently settled into, while also leaving space to explore new sounds.
"I want to keep the same direction, but try different sounds, more powerful," he says, adding that he is also interested in developing more of the Shaami influence that has always been part of his listening background.
This direction is already reflected in what he is currently working on. He explains that new music is in progress, including one or two singles, as well as another five-track EP planned before the end of the year.
Alongside planning new releases, NABD says he is paying close attention to how listeners connect with the language in his music.
"I feel it when fans appreciate the Arabic sentences," he says, adding that "they feel it more" when those elements are present.
At the same time, he notes that some newer listeners may not know his earlier work: "Some people who follow me now don't know that I used to sing classical Arabic songs."
Because of this, he adds, "I want to make both understand where I come from without denying anything."
That balance between different audiences also connects to how he deals with his own process behind the scenes. He describes overthinking as something that has been present since the beginning of his career, saying, "It's something I struggled with since I started making music," while adding that even now he is "still fighting with it."
Part of what he is working on now is changing how he relates to external pressure, saying, "The more you detach from the numbers, the more vulnerable you can be," and adding that "there's nothing wrong with that."
Looking further ahead, NABD says there is one long-term goal that continues to guide him.
"I have one stage in mind," he says, referring to the L'Olympia in Paris . He explains its significance by noting it is "the only stage in Europe where Umm Kulthum performed in the 1970s," adding that "performing there would mean the world to me."
Ultimately, everything NABD is doing now is moving towards that goal, from how he releases music and develops his sound to how he continues to blend dialects and influences in his work. Zainab Mehdi is The New Arab's Associate Editor and researcher specialising in governance, development, and conflict in the Middle East and North Africa region Follow her on Instagram: @zaiamehdi_ / @zainabmehdiwrites_