SIBA

SIBA (Siba Alkhiami) is a Syrian rapper, singer and composer based in Berlin who also works as a software developer. Born in Germany in 1996, she grew up in Damascus before returning to Berlin, where she has lived since 2012, and she writes politically direct music performed primarily in Arabic with on-screen translation. Her breakout track Dounana, produced by Monkyman, is an unflinching address to Western colonial and imperial powers that frames anger not as something to suppress but as a constructive signal of injustice and a tool for empowerment among marginalised communities. She wrote the song out of a sense of helplessness while watching the genocide in Gaza unfold, and cites Bobby Sanchez’s Quechua-language track Quechua 101 as an inspiration for connecting that pain to a wider history of colonial erasure. Originally released in early 2024 with a music video shot in Berlin, Dounana spread rapidly online in 2026 after being reformatted into a vertical video, its cast of performers with migration backgrounds carrying a deliberate message of collective steadfastness.