Lella Fadda is blazing a trail in the Egyptian music scene

This article is partly taken from the autumn 2025 issue of Dazed. Buy a copy of the magazine here.

Earlier this year, a video came across my explore page of a girl performing on Colours Studios’ live show that sort of stopped me in my tracks. A few days later, I saw the video again on TikTok and then once again on a mutual friend's Instagram story. The artist in question was 25-year-old Egyptian-Italian singer Lella Fadda. Standing in a two-piece loose-fitting suit with a tie and thick eyeliner, she rapped in Arabic: “If I insist on something, then I’m too much / If I take it and remain silent, then I’m annoying and closed off / If I speak my mind, then I’m bringing you down”. Unpacking the abuse far too many women face in a serious yet tongue-in-cheek way, Fadda manages to bring light to topics most shy away from. 

Born in Italy and raised in Cairo, Fadda recalls spending her early years “in her room,” with restricted access to the outside world until her pre-teens, when she attended a concert by the Lebanese alt-rock band Mashrou’ Leila. That early sense of solitude shaped her relationship to sound and cemented her belief that music was something she was meant to pursue. For Fadda, being uncensored isn’t about shock; it’s about vulnerability, and about refusing to be confined to a single genre or expectation.

In January, she released MAGNÜN, an album featuring 11 tracks that work through dreamlike melancholy and alt-rap/pop. Her work has become a sort of personal archive, sometimes confrontational, sometimes tender, rooted in a refusal to fit into preconceived ideas about women in music. Singing in Arabic, she deliberately centres female perspectives in a landscape often dominated by male narratives, documenting her interior world with a clarity that feels both intimate and expansive.

Fadda’s journey is one of constant growth, marked by genuine experimentation and unflinching honesty. She pulls her writing directly from life, performs with a vulnerability that draws you in, and develops narratives that feel both uniquely hers and universally relatable. She is, in every sense, an artist documenting her life and inviting listeners to grow alongside her.

Below, Fadda speaks her musical influences, creative process and more.

Where did you grow up, and how do you think that place shaped your music?

Lella Fadda: I grew up in Cairo, in my room. I was not connected to the outside world until I was 11. It was only school and then back to my room, so this shaped my understanding of music until I was introduced to concerts. I always knew I wanted to make music, but the first concert I attended, Mashrou’ Leila, was when I felt like I needed to work towards that.

What first pulled you towards making music – was there a specific moment or artist?

Lella Fadda: I have been singing since I was four years old. I don’t remember how it started. As a child, I wanted to make sounds, and that’s it. I don’t think there was a specific person or artist.

How would you describe your sound to someone who’s never heard you before?

Lella Fadda: Just go listen.

You don’t hold back in your lyrics. What does being ‘uncensored’ mean to you?

Lella Fadda: Being fiercely vulnerable. It doesn’t depend on a certain genre. I am vulnerable when it comes to rap and hip-hop. I’m not afraid to be myself, but this is also the same for my dreamy and melancholic side. I’m just not afraid to be myself.

Do you feel pressure to present yourself in a certain way as a woman in music?

Lella Fadda: I feel pressure because of people, not because I feel pressured about how people expect a female or woman to sound like or look like or be like. I try not to think of it that much, in order to not go crazy.

How do you usually start a song – melody, lyric or mood? What is your songwriting process like?

Lella Fadda: It’s very chaotic, to be honest. Sometimes the melody comes first. Sometimes I have an idea first, and I try to execute it. Sometimes it’s just a guitar. Sometimes it’s the beat, and I start writing on it. Depends on what I’m doing and where I’m at in the day, not in the phase.

What role do visuals and aesthetics play in how you express yourself as an artist?

Lella Fadda: I always imagine my music as a film. I’m very interested in storylines, but not interested in doing visuals for the sake of visuals. It has to mean something to me. [Sometimes it’s] the place the video is taken in, or maybe the deeper meaning to me.

For example, [the video for] ‘Malleit’ is one that everyone is going to understand in a different way, but it really represents my memories, and a huge phase of my life. It was real to me, that’s why I chose my friend Nadim to be in the video as opposed to a model. It represented a big phase of my life; he represented a phase of my life. [So did] going exploring Port Said, and places in Cairo that I really like.

What’s something people often get wrong about you or your music?

Lella Fadda: To be honest, I don’t care about things that are outside of me because people’s minds and opinions change over time, so I wouldn’t even like to think about what they get wrong. It’s more about thinking about WHEN they will get it.

Who is the audience you have in mind when you are working on new music?

Lella Fadda: I’m the audience. I make music that I like. I don’t think of people, but if you want a specific answer to that, I think of women being represented and not just singing male pronouns because they don’t have any reference from any other female artists singing in female pronouns. For example, on TikTok, you will find a girl lip-syncing to song lyrics like ‘ana aiz’. I would say ‘ana aiza’. It’s just female and male pronouns. I’m documenting my life as a woman, not trying to be male.

You have new music coming up. Could you tell us a bit about it and this new chapter of your career?

Lella Fadda: It was interesting working in a studio in Berlin with non-Arabic speakers on an Arabic record. It’s my favourite body of work, and I have no expectations, but I want people to expect a lot.

What’s the biggest lesson you've learned so far in your career?

Lella Fadda: A lot. It takes time for people to understand and accept the success of a woman.

What do you hope people take away from your music? What is the message you wish to share through your songs?

Lella Fadda: I just want them to feel something.

What excites you about the future?

Lella Fadda: The music I still didn’t create.