Chapeau (Extrait) :
Lebanese pop star Elissa released her 14th studio album, Elissar, on streaming platforms and her official YouTube channel on Thursday, November 5, a 14-track record that takes its title from her birth name and includes her first original song in the Gulf dialect, according to Billboard Arabia and the singer’s official release announcement.
An album named after the artist
Elissar is the given name of the singer born Elissar Zakaria Khoury, and she chose it as the title to place her own story at the centre of the project, Billboard Arabia reported. The official announcement adds that the title also nods to Elissar, the Phoenician queen credited in legend with founding Carthage, and describes the record as two years in the making.
All 14 songs were released at once. According to Billboard Arabia, the choice reflects Elissa’s wish for listeners to hear the album as a single story from beginning to end rather than as a string of separate singles. Themes of love, heartbreak and resilience run through the tracklist, the announcement says, with the singer approaching loss “through the perspective of a woman who has emerged stronger”.
The tracklist opens with Leil Ya Leil and closes with El Ouda El Dalma. Other titles include Habbatal Aheb, Baddi Yak, Kashf El Hisab, Matarat, Ehtimal and Atini Ghamra.
A first step into Gulf music
The most talked-about track is Cheta El Riyadh, or Riyadh Winter, which Billboard Arabia describes as Elissa’s first original song in the Khaleeji dialect. The outlet noted that the singer had previously avoided Gulf repertoire for fear of not mastering it, after a career built mainly on Lebanese and Egyptian songs.
According to the release announcement, the album comprises nine Egyptian songs, four Lebanese songs and the Khaleeji track, and it was mastered by American engineer Bernie Grundman, whose credits include records by Michael Jackson and Prince.
Producing on her own terms
Elissar is the second album Elissa has produced entirely through her own label, E Records, after Ana Sekketen in 2024, Billboard Arabia said. It is also her first project with Believe Artist Services, part of the French artist development company Believe. The announcement presents the partnership as support for the next phase of her international growth while preserving her creative independence.
Billboard Arabia also reported that Elissa recorded further songs during the sessions that did not make the final cut and are being held back for later projects.
More than two decades at the top
Elissa made her recording debut in 1999 with the album Baddy Doub and has since become one of the best-selling voices in Arabic pop. Her team credits her with more than 30 million records sold, three World Music Awards for best-selling Middle Eastern artist and an honour at the 2024 Billboard Women in Music awards.
Elissar follows Ana Sekketen, the 2024 album that Billboard Arabia described as autobiographical. With Egyptian, Lebanese and now Gulf songs on a single record, the new album covers the three main dialects of the Arabic pop market, from Cairo and Beirut to Riyadh, the city named in its Khaleeji track.