ELYANNA'S DESERT DEBUT

With National Arab American Heritage Month kicking off in April, Elyanna is feeling a mixture of pride, duty and serendipity—the SALXCO-managed artist, whose heritage is Palestinian-Chilean, will be the first Arabic singer ever to perform at Coachella.

It’s a milestone SALXCO founder-chief and Universal Arabic Music CEO Wassim “Sal” Slaiby and UAM co-founder Rima Fakih Slaiby are particularly savoring. “We are so proud to be a part of the journey Elyanna is on, bringing this new sound worldwide,” reads a jointly issued quote, which also notes that the impact of Elyanna's upcoming festival appearance “on the culture and the evolution of this music into the mainstream is so exciting to us.”

The singer’s third EP, Elyanna 2, is due later this year from Universal Arabic Music/Republic; single “Ghareeb Alay” is already making noise.

The artist-songwriter was just 15 when she came to the attention of Grammy-winning singer and songwriter Nasri Atweh, who subsequently introduced her to Lebanese-Canadian star Massari—and to Slaiby.

She collaborated with Massari on the single “Ana Lahale,” which appeared on her 2020 EP, Elyanna, and has racked up north of 18m streams. Mondo press looks in the Middle East editions of Vogue, Cosmo and GQ—not to mention some 1 million TikTok followers—offer a hint of Elyanna's potential, as have a series of stand-alone shows in the U.S., Europe and the Middle East. She’s booked by Marty Diamond at Wasserman.

“Playing Coachella is such an honor to me, as an Arab, singing in Arabic,” said Elyanna. “My music is being recognized by the biggest festival in the world. I’m beyond happy. But it’s also a huge responsibility for me to be able to represent my culture. I’m giving Coachella something new, something nobody has seen before. I’m gonna make us Arabs proud.”