Meet Tiara, a multilingual Arab artist based in Dubai

The Lebanese singer opens up about performing at Jeddah E-Prix, industry setbacks, and building her sound in the city

- Husain Rizvi

There's a version of the music industry we all see on Instagram: festival stages, glossy visuals, stream counts climbing in neat little milestones. And then there's the part no one posts about: the wrong contracts, the creative restrictions, the "you're not ready yet" conversations.

So, when a budding Lebanese singer-songwriter, Tiara, stopped by the Khaleej Times office on February 3, she wasn't selling a fairy tale. Ten days later, she'd be performing at the Jeddah E-Prix during the Formula E World Championship weekend, on a lineup headlined by Future. But our conversation was more about the process than the flex.

Tiara, who grew up in Dubai (she calls herself a proper Jumeirah girlie), doesn't frame her entry into music as a happy accident. "I was always going to be a singer," she says plainly.

Christina Aguilera was the early benchmark, Burlesque was on repeat, Disney Channel concerts weren't optional viewing, and childhood workshops in Orlando, New York and LA weren't hobbies. The vision never really shifted. What did shift was the sound.