City Recital Hall turned into a dance party and a high-energy celebration during Sydney Festival’s 50th milestone year. Two bright lights of contemporary club music shared a pulsating double bill and the party went on till LATE.
Nooriyah is a DJ, audio producer, presenter, and founder of the Middle Of Nowhere event series.
Born in Saudi Arabia, raised in Japan and now based in the UK, Nooriyah, has spent the past decade championing sounds of the diaspora.
She’s all about SWANA (Southwest Asia and North Africa), mixing the likes of Arabian pop, Jersey Club, Afrobeats, amapiano and trap, and she’s gone onto found the SWANA focused collaborative in London Middle of Nowhere.
Her Boiler Room sessions have entered nightclub lore, and she’s been taking Glastonbury and Coachella by storm.
Finding fans all over the world and millions of streams, the Sydney audience was ready for a big night out, lapping up the musical diversity she has become famous for.
Her debut European headline tour Middle of Everywhere was a massive hit, and it’s easy to see why. She brings a lot of energy to her sets and is clearly having the time of her life.
Her deep musical knowledge has also led her to work on a more broad suite of audio- projects, including soundtracks for film and TV.
Complementing her perfectly on the double-bill was Palestinian-American curator DJ Habibeats, the driving force behind the genre-blurring Habibi’s House event series. Fusing Arabic sounds with global electronic influences, the globe-trotting selector champions a new wave of culturally rooted, borderless dance music, and people were there for it.
Habibi’s House describes itself as a party highlighting and celebrating global sounds. Arab, African, Brazilian, Caribbean, Indian, and Latin influences meet genres like Amapiano, Afrobeats, House, Baile Funk, Bass, Dancehall, Hip-Hop, Jersey, Reggaeton, DnB, and more.
Plenty of that was on offer at City Recital Hall, and both DJ Habibeats and Nooriyah created a real sense of love and acceptance in the room. Beyond the parties there is a real sense of of their bigger mission. They are bringing world music and the recognition of representation to the dance floor. They’re expanding people’s minds while they re-write the rule books and bring misunderstood cultures out into the light. And the beat.
Nooriyah & DJ Habibeats
City Recital Hall
2 Angel Place NSW 2000
