The MuSHEqua initiative seeks to support female Egyptian talent through mentorships on songwriting, production and music distribution with music industry leaders.
Nvak Foundation, a non profit record label dedicated to nurturing music talent, is partnering with female-focused arts festival She Arts to launch MuSHEqua, a music education and career development program for Egyptian women and girls. Nvak’s roster is made up of female emerging artists that they’ve picked up from around the globe, including Rosa Linn, who just finished a tour with Ed Sheeran, and Talia Lahoud.
With a focus on teaching female artists how to write, produce and release their own music into the world beyond local borders, Nvak Foundation has an extensive array of programs rooted in music education and career development to a global community of artists from the Middle East to the US. Through their use of blockchain technology, NVAK helps artists release their original music as NFTs to connect and reach wider audiences.
“Egypt is a huge market, yet lacks the uplift and support especially for women in new scenes like alternative or hip hop,” Talia Lahoud’s manager, Mahmood Sultan, tells SceneNoise. “We want to offer that support and mentorship and expand these artists and their reach.”
MuSHEqua, which was originally launched in 2016 in Jordan and Armenia, is officially launching in Egypt this November in partnership with the US embassy in Cairo. The program is set to fly out industry professionals from the US every weekend until 2024 with the intention of collaborating with students for hands-on experience to hone their music production skills.
“What we want to do with MuSHEqua is to create a strong community across Egypt, one that includes all cities and regions. So we really urge people from Alexandria to Luxor and Aswan to participate, for example,” Tarek Nader, Community Manager for Nvak Foundation in Egypt, says.
“Like we say here at Nvak, talent is equally distributed but opportunity isn’t,” Hannah Hyman, Foundation Manager at Nvak Foundation, adds.
Currently, MuSHEqua is recruiting Egyptian writers, producers and musicians from the ages of 18 to 35, urging participation from all cities by covering lodging and transportation expenses.
