Kazem Al Saher

Kazem Al Saher is the top-selling singer in the Arab world today, both in terms of recordings and ticket sales. His music is rich with the melodies, rhythms, and complex sonic textures of Arabic classical music, but at the same time, his compositions are strikingly contemporary, and his superb voice and good looks have helped to make him a pop icon throughout the Arabian Gulf, the Middle East and beyond.

Kazem's success playing classical, romantic songs in an era of electronic pop music is much more remarkable in light of the fact of two wars, an international embargo, and a condition of unprecedented isolation in his homeland.

"I am a man of love," says Kazem, "a man of romance. I have memories of politics, but almost all of my songs are about love, in the manner of Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet.'"

Kazem has played major U.S. concerts for Arab people living in America, but few other Americans know him.

— Courtesy Calabash Music