Alaa Wardi


Alaa Wardi is a Saudi Arabian singer, songwriter, a cappella artist, and producer of Iranian origin. He gained popularity through the online video sharing platform, YouTube, where he publishes covers of Middle Eastern, English, Bollywood and K-pop hits, and original ballads. Wardi released his album Fi Ba7ri in 2015 and Madinat Al Salah in 2016. He is also part of the Arab rock and pop band Hayajan.

Career

Alaa Wardi studied music and sound engineering at the University of Jordan, and after graduating in 2008, he moved back to Riyadh to work and focus on his music.
He produced the English language musical video "No Woman, No Drive" in October 2013 with comedians Hisham Fageeh and Fahad Albutairi as a satirical comment on the Saudi Arabian ban on women drivers. It is sung a capella by Fageeh backed by Wardi and Albutairi to the tune of Bob Marley's "No Woman, No Cry" and has been popular on YouTube.
In June 2015, Wardi released his album Fi Ba7ri. The lyrics for the album's songs were written by Aziz Maraka, a Jordanian musician. His Hindi cover versions of Bollywood hits "Pehla Nasha" and "Jiya Re" became famous, as well as his mash-up "Evolution of Arabic Music" which is an a capella mash-up of 42 Arabic songs from the 1930s to 2010s. He has collaborated with a great number of other Arab and international artists including Peter Hollens.
In August 2019, Wardi released a new a cappella cover of Arab all time star Fairuz, a Medley featuring Jordanian indie singer Haifa Kamal, which went viral within few hours, and reaching more than 800K views on its 9th day on Youtube. Wardi was then contacted by Rahbani family, and was instructed to immediately remove the video or serious legal actions would be taken.
Thousands of fans had already downloaded the video, and it's still going viral on the internet.

Personal life

He was born to Iranian parents in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. His family owns a furniture business in Riyadh. He married Sinem Güneş in 2015 in Bodrum, Turkey.

Discography

Solo albums

Original singles