Alaa Wardi (Arabic: علاء وردي, Persian: علا واردی; born 13 January 1987) is a Saudi-born singer, songwriter, a cappella artist, and producer. 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 popular 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".
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.
