Hiba Tawaji and Ibrahim Maalouf continue their refined tribute to French chanson with the release of a second single, already available: a reinterpretation of Julien Clerc’s iconic song “Fais-moi une place”, accompanied by the unveiling of a sensitive new music video.

With the music video for “Fais-moi une place”, a cover of Julien Clerc’s famous song by Hiba Tawaji and Ibrahim Maalouf, the two artists unveil an intimate and immersive proposal, conceived as a journey through their daily lives leading up to the music.
The camera follows them throughout a busy day, moving between family life, including particularly touching moments with their children, travel, and rehearsals, before bringing them together at the legendary Studio Ferber. The video sensitively and perfectly captures the duo’s familial and artistic bond.

Hiba Tawaji and Ibrahim Maalouf had already caused a sensation when they performed Edith Piaf’s “La Vie en rose” as a duet during the ceremony commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Victory of 8 May 1945, broadcast live on France TV to several million viewers. It was a highly symbolic performance that left a lasting impression on everyone who saw it.

A true star across the Middle East and the Arab world, Hiba Tawaji has performed in some of the Middle East’s most prestigious venues. Considered one of the most beautiful voices of her generation, she also quickly won the hearts of French audiences.
On 7 December 2024, she took part in the historic reopening ceremony of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. The performance featured the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, and millions of viewers watched around the world. A few months earlier, she gave her first major concert in France on the prestigious stage of the Olympia, with special guests Florent Pagny, Lara Fabian, Matthieu Chedid, Ycare and Madame Monsieur. Among her most prestigious collaborations are Andrea Bocelli and the American quintet Pentatonix, with whom she features on their latest Grammy-nominated album.

Ibrahim Maalouf is one of the few French artists to have been nominated for a Grammy Award two years in a row. A true virtuoso, Over the past 20 years, he has collaborated with some of music’s biggest names: Toumani Diabaté, Sting, Angélique Kidjo, A$AP Rocky, Josh Groban, De la Soul, the Orchestre National de France, Juliette Gréco, Sharon Stone, Matthieu Chedid, Monica Bellucci, and many more. These collaborations are both prestigious and diverse, making him a true anomaly in the cultural and musical landscape. Accustomed to filling the world’s largest venues, his meeting in 2017 with Quincy Jones, who became his manager in the United States, was decisive.

To celebrate his 20-year career, Ibrahim Maalouf is now preparing to make history with the largest instrumental jazz concert ever organised, on 10 April 2027, at Paris La Défense Arena.

The meeting of these two artists’ musical worlds promises to be as moving as it is masterful.

Zalfa Assaf

The Met Gala has reached a point where the boundary between fashion and spectacle is becoming increasingly difficult to locate. What once functioned as a curated dialogue between art, craftsmanship, and identity now often feels like an escalation of visual intensity, where the primary goal is not expression but impact.

This year’s most discussed appearances made that shift impossible to ignore. Zendaya appeared in a sculptural transformation that dissolved the idea of clothing into architecture. Katy Perry leaned into a masked surreal presence that felt closer to performance than dressing. Kim Kardashian presented a silhouette pushed to its most dramatic extreme, reshaping proportion as a statement in itself. Gigi Hadid delivered an exaggerated couture construction that amplified form until it almost detached from function. Each look, in its own way, was visually striking, yet collectively they pointed to the same direction: fashion as escalation rather than articulation.

What is becoming difficult to ignore is that this escalation is no longer occasional. It is structural. The Met Gala is increasingly operating as a stage where meaning is built through excess, where clothing is asked to perform rather than communicate. The body is no longer dressed, it is reconfigured. The silhouette is no longer shaped, it is transformed into concept. In this shift, something essential begins to blur: the relationship between what is seen and what is felt.

Fashion, at its strongest, has always relied on tension between imagination and restraint. It is not the absence of boundaries that creates impact, but the intelligent use of them. Yet what dominates now is a different logic, one that treats visibility as the final goal. The result is a continuous race toward intensity, where subtlety risks being mistaken for absence.

This is where the Met Gala finds itself in a complicated position. It remains one of the most influential stages in global fashion, yet it is also increasingly defined by a single question it does not fully answer: when does innovation become excess, and when does excess stop meaning anything at all.

The concern is not that fashion is becoming experimental. It is that experimentation is drifting away from intention. When every look is designed to shock, the idea of shock loses its weight. What remains is surface, multiplied and amplified, but not necessarily deepened.

And so the event returns, year after year, with images that dominate conversation for a moment, but raise a more lasting uncertainty beneath them.

Where should fashion stop?

Following the success of Trumpets of Michel-Ange — praised by critics, amassing millions of streams, and supported by more than 140 concert dates around the world — Ibrahim Maalouf continues and deepens the adventure launched around the quarter-tone trumpet with his album, expected on June 12, 2026, “TRUMPETS OF MICHEL-ANGE VOL. 2”.

As a prelude to this new volume, he unveils the first single, “LAS TROMPETAS DE NAEL,” available on April 30, 2026.

With “LAS TROMPETAS DE NAEL,” Ibrahim Maalouf delivers a piece that is both festive and deeply human: a dance—a kolo—and above all a living story, a circle that expands. Born of a melody “coming from several lands at once,” the track carries within it dance steps, children’s laughter, and that gentle melancholy unique to major celebrations.

Conceived as a musical wedding, the song brings generations together without setting them against one another: traditions breathe, transform, and travel within it. The music becomes a crossroads, blending the trance and freedom of Romani music, South American pulses, and Middle Eastern ornaments, in a spirit of openness where “no one is a stranger.”

The album will be available on June 12, 2026

At the heart of this celebration, Nael embodies childhood—the starting point. Through the trumpets, Ibrahim Maalouf recalls what matters most: encouraging from the very beginning, passing things on without imposing, opening paths. “LAS TROMPETAS DE NAEL” also speaks of that intimate “marriage” we make with ourselves, with the child we once were, and whom we must never abandon.

Because the kolo is a collective dance, this single highlights the energy of the group: a multitude of voices that become a single force. Festive, the track is also nostalgic—we dance to celebrate, but also to hold on, not to forget. And the music becomes that invisible thread that connects generations.

“LAS TROMPETAS DE NAEL” is an invitation to come back together: to remember where we come from while accepting becoming something else. A tribute to inheritances and their transformation—a dance without borders, an endless celebration.

LAS TROMPETAS DE NAEL link : https://idol-io.ffm.to/lastrompetasdenael

American pop star Billie Eilish has expressed genuine admiration for Lebanese icon Nancy Ajram, in comments that quickly caught the attention of both Arab and international media.

In a recent interview with Elle, Billie Eilish revealed that she is a longtime fan of Nancy Ajram, describing her as one of the artists she deeply enjoys listening to. She highlighted how Nancy’s music introduced her to a different cultural soundscape, praising her voice and artistic presence as “timeless and influential.”

Shortly after the interview gained traction, Nancy Ajram responded through her official account on X, thanking Billie Eilish for her kind words and expressing her admiration in return. She welcomed the appreciation warmly, noting that music continues to be a universal language that connects artists across borders.

The exchange immediately sparked a wave of reactions online. Fans from the Arab world celebrated the recognition of one of their biggest pop stars on a global stage, while Billie Eilish’s audience expressed curiosity and excitement about Nancy Ajram’s music, with many discovering her catalog for the first time.

Social media platforms were flooded with clips, quotes, and fan edits highlighting the unexpected cultural crossover, with many users describing it as a “beautiful moment of mutual respect between two generations of pop.

While no collaboration has been announced, the interaction has already been widely seen as a symbolic bridge between Western alternative pop and Arab pop music, opening conversations about future cross cultural artistic exchanges.