Jordan

Artists from Jordan, where Amman has become a working base for Jordanian and Palestinian musicians alike.

Amman’s importance is partly demographic and partly circumstantial. A large share of the population is of Palestinian origin, and the city has been a practical base for musicians from Syria, Iraq and Palestine who could not work at home, which has given a mid-sized capital a scene disproportionate to its size.

The 2010s wave of Jordanian bands did most of the work of establishing it: guitar-led, Arabic-language, self-released, and touring the region on their own terms. Around them sits a strong hip hop scene, a growing electronic one, and artists who work directly with dabke and Levantine folk material.

The infrastructure is modest and the venues are few, which shows up in how many artists here also record and release from elsewhere.