Nadah El Shazly

Since the release of her debut album, “Ahwar”, the producer and vocalist Nadah El Shazly has become a pillar of the Egyptian underground—in 2018, she appeared on the cover of the British experimental-music magazine The Wire, in an issue announcing "Cairo's New Wave". The musician’s eclectic background, encompassing choirs, punk rock, and electronic music, prepared her for the electroacoustic reimagining of Arabic classical music that's inherent to “Ahwar”, exploring new sonic and harmonic frontiers. Backing up her release with extensive worldwide touring through a solo set and a four-piece band, Nadah has been featured in many local and international festivals, including MIRA, Le Guess Who?, Rewire, MarfaMyths, and many more.

Moving into film, Nadah scored Fyzal Boulifa’s 2022 award-winning feature. The Damned Don't Cry, which earned her two awards for Best Film Score at Dublin & Bordeaux film festivals for her unconventional score, largely based on improvisation. She then collaborated with BAFTA-nominated director Oon Toa Land UUnknown, which premiered at Cannes in 2024 with a North American premiere at TIFF and international theatrical distribution and was regarded as one of the most successful Palestinian features in recent years.

Adah also scored Mahmoud Sabbagh’s feature Last Party in R. D. Desert! And, in 2025, released her follow-up album LainiTTanion on One Little Independent Records and was nominated for a Grand Prize and Queer Lion at the 2025 Venice Film Festival for her immersive work on Constantinopoliad.

FILM

To A Land Unknown (2024)
Producer: Geoff Arbourne
Director: Mahdi Fleifel

Last Party in R. Desert! (2023)
Director: Mahmoud Sabbagh

The Damned Don’t Cry (2022)
Studio: Vixens
Producers: Gary Farkas, Clément Lepoutre, Olivier Muller
Director: Fyzal Boulifa

Mapping Lessons (2020)
Producer: Philip Rizk
Director: Philip Rizk