Mishaal Tamer on His Groundbreaking Tour With OneRepublic and Making Music for a New Genera

In 2020, Mishaal Tamer became the first aspiring global pop star from Saudi Arabia to sign a major record deal in the U.S., where he released his debut EP, “Life’s a Ride,” via RCA Records. This summer, he’s touring Europe as the opening act for OneRepublic — a major milestone for an artist from his country.

Tamer, whose father is Saudi and mother is Ecuadorian, started playing guitar when he was 9, at a time when religious police in his country were prone to smashing instruments and Western pop music was basically banned. But in 2017 and 2018, just as Tamer began posting his songs online, Saudi Arabia lifted its bans on movies and musical events, prompting a cultural sea change.

Now the country has a thriving concert scene, reflected in Riyadh’s Soundstorm, which is among the biggest music festivals in the world. In 2022, Tamer was a headlining act, alongside Bruno Mars, David Guetta and DJ Snake. Besides touring with OneRepublic in venues such as London’s Wembley Arena, Tamer is readying his first album, titled “Home Is Changing.” He spoke to Variety about the journey that led him to become the first Saudi artist to support a global act on tour.

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How did you get your gig with OneRepublic?

It was this guy named Drew Chaffee [who handles musical direction and playback for artists including OneRepublic]. He was shopping my stuff around, and eventually it reached the ears of Ryan Tedder, the lead singer of OneRepublic. He loved it. Basically, I still can’t believe it and can’t tell you how much this means to us, man. This band, obviously we [Saudis] all grew up with it. But also — I don’t know how many people know this — this was the first rock band to ever come to Saudi Arabia [after the music ban was lifted].

How do you define your music?

I’ll be honest with you, man, I don’t have a definition for it myself. Online, “S-pop” is kind of the word that’s been popping up. I guess it makes sense. It’s the music of this new generation of Saudi kids, based on what we like and what we’ve been inspired by.

So what are your musical references?

In my music, especially the stuff that you’ll see coming up this year, it’s a mixture. It’s got a lot of indie rock to it, but it’s also got a bit of, in a funny way, K-pop, and some Arab heritage music. A lot of the songs that I have coming out feature instruments that you would never hear in Western music, like our oud, for example. There’s a song called “Disco Cowboy,” and it’s got an electric oud.

You will also soon appear on the big screen in Saudi actress and filmmaker Ahd Kamel’s first feature, “My Driver and I.” What’s your role?

I play guitar and I sing in the movie as well. There are even some scenes with the religious police. Now they’re abolished. But in the film I’m hiding away from them to listen to my music and that kind of thing. The movie takes place in 1989, and you can really see the change. It was a time when music was taboo, but you would still see people just gravitating towards it because it’s such a natural thing. I mean, music is part of life. You can’t take it away.

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Martina Birk

Update: 2024-03-18

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