Bahrain

Artists from Bahrain, one of the two homes of sawt and of the Gulf’s pearl-diving song tradition.

Bahrain shares the credit for sawt with Kuwait, and Bahraini musicians were among the first to record the form commercially in the early twentieth century, which is why so much of what survives of early Gulf music carries a Bahraini name.

The island’s other deep tradition is fijiri, the work songs of the pearl-diving crews: a lead voice and a chorus, hand percussion, and no melodic instrument at all. It is still practised in dedicated houses in Muharraq.

Contemporary Bahraini artists spread across Khaleeji pop, rock and electronic music, in a scene small enough that most of them have played together.