Malak Maps Her Journey of Growth, Loss & Selfhood on EP 'Mirage’

Following a stream of sporadic singles releases over the last two years, Egyptian singer-songwriter Malak El Hussieny unveiled her highly-anticipated Arabic alt-pop EP ‘Mirage’- her first album in four years, and her most personal work to date.

Most people, including myself, have come to discover Malak following her standout audition on The X-Factor in 2015, which marked her breakthrough moment in the Egyptian alternative music scene and seemed to put her road to stardom into hyperdrive. Although the Malak we followed at the time was mostly singing in English, since then she came out with more Arabic releases like ‘3ala Bali’, ‘Dopamine’ and ‘Beside’, which demonstrated her refined sound, artistic growth and full potential.

Her latest offering, ‘Mirage’, encompasses five emotionally-charged tracks, exploring universal themes of love, loss and time. But, as much as it is about tapping into her vulnerability with sincerity, the project also sees a Malak that is confident in her sound, asserting herself in a heavily saturated music scene. Born out of a period of transition in her life, each track on the album represents a chapter she had to close in order to move forward and have personal growth, serving as a time capsule into who she was and a glimpse of who she’s now becoming.

The EP’s opening track ‘Sana Wara Sana’, produced in collaboration with Egyptian rap superstar Abyusif, is a poignant laid-back tune that makes the intention behind the album’s creation clear. The track reflects on the passage of time, capturing the delicate balance between her inner turmoil and struggle going into adulthood through introspective lyricism. The music video for ‘Sana Wara Sana’, directed by Dibo, features Malak sitting inside a prison cell –an honest portrayal of her helplessness in the face of the inevitable recurrent changes in real life.

The mood of the opener is carried out in ‘El Nas’, produced by NOVO, where Malak delves deep into her attempts to navigate the absurd societal expectations while striving to maintain her artistic integrity. The track’s production mirrors the emotional weight of the topic through heavy string arrangements, Malak’s introspective lyrics, as well as her haunting vocal delivery.

Molhema’, however, breaks away from the EP’s emotional tone, as Malak appears in a different musical style; she eschews themes of betrayal to craft a powerful anthem of individuality, taking a bold unapologetic approach with raw sharp lyrical delivery against the backdrop of a shaabi-influenced beat produced by EVO.

Meanwhile, ‘Ghazal’ and ‘Mawdoo3 Ghareeb’ both explore the emotional complex of relationships from two different perspectives. In ‘Ghazal’, it’s all about the ‘purple haze’ phase of falling in love, meditating on the feeling of longing and connection through dreamy melodies and lush instrumentation that feels like a flirtatious dance carried out by Malak’s soft feathery vocals. Whereas in ‘Mawdoo3 Ghareeb’, Malak speaks of the intense emotionally detrimental side of unhealthy passion, and how tables turn in such a blink of an eye through a cluster of syncopated synths and auto-tuned vocals.