Broadcast live on Radio AlHara Thurs 8 July 2021 @ 1pm for Sawa, Sawa – a digital space curated and produced by Young Shubbak for Shubbak Festival 2021.
Listen again on YouTube, Soundcloud or Mixcloud.
Born during the early months of one of the world’s strictest lockdowns, IRAQ-A-FELLA Radio started as a way for Delhi-based label owner and boxout.fm co-founder DJ MoCity to cope with living alone and away from family by rediscovering his music roots.
Alongside a number of friends and frequent collaborators oceans apart, IRAQ-A-FELLA Radio came to life. With features from the likes of artist and writer Sundus Abdul Hadi, Iraqi-Canadian rapper, author, university instructor and director Narcy (who also coined the name of the show), Dubai- based creative zayelkenz and London-based creative director/producer Abdulisms. Each monthly episode explores a branch of sonic heritage for the artists in the form of guest mixes and radio specials.
Read our artist spotlight on Abdulisms
Sawa, Sawa was a digital space by and for 18-26 years old South West Asian and North African (SWANA) artists in the UK for Shubbak 2021. Conceived, curated and produced by Young Shubbak, a collective of 18-25 years old artists, curators and producers. The fourteen featured artists, selected from an open call, used their respective crafts to poignantly reflect the process of growth within lockdown. Sawa, Sawa celebrated a stopping of time, a moment to reflect as the artists turned towards their inner complexities. Through this growth, they fostered a newly found connection with community and what it means to exist in this new world within which we find ourselves.
The show's back catalogue of episodes walk you through a rich and diverse heritage of Iraqi sound. From the earliest collections of traditional chobi music all the way to football anthems, classical love ballads and the current Iraqi Rap scene. It is the product of a cross generational and trans-national communal effort for Iraqi creatives to connect. At home and in the diaspora, collaborating and creating a representative and lasting legacy for their cultures and oral histories on the global scene.
IRAQ-A-FELLA Radio is made up of a global collective of Iraqi artists/curators with members dotted across timezones and continents spanning Montreal and New Delhi to London, Dubai and Baghdad.