What is the difference between DJing at a packed Palestinian wedding and at Coachella?
For DJ Habibeats, the stage name of Ibrahim Abu-Ali, who made his debut at the mammoth music festival this month, there are more similarities than one might expect. He remembers the parties of his childhood in San Francisco, particularly those held within Fairfield's tight-knit Palestinian community in Solano County, an eight-hour drive from the festival grounds.
“I remember watching my uncle as a DJ at weddings when I was young,” he tells The National. “I began to understand which songs people responded to, which rhythms moved them and what made a dance floor come alive.”
As the gear became more advanced, what stayed with Habibeats from those days was the joy, nostalgia and, at times, sorrow carried within those classic Arabic party jams. He is aware of the power of tunes that not only sustain diaspora communities around the world, but that are also now reaching some of the world's biggest stages.
Habibeats was one of a number of regional acts performing at the festival, alongside Tunisian-British producer Hamdi, Jordanian-Egyptian duo Bedouin and Lebanese-American singer-songwriter Samia. While they move in similar circles, Habibeats says each brings a different experience and approach to a stage of that size.
As well as setting the tone for an upcoming EP due in the coming weeks, Habibeats' own storming set, which blended 1990s Arabic pop with percolating Jersey club, amapiano and Latin American rhythms, affirmed the path he set out on when he began performing more than a decade ago.
“I met so many people at Coachella, whether they were fans or people who did not know who I was, telling me how amazing it was to hear these sounds and feel represented. People came up to me saying: ‘I’m Lebanese, Armenian, Iraqi, Egyptian, and I can’t believe you’re playing these songs. I can’t believe you’re mixing this and representing our people,’” he says.
“It was really cool, and it felt like an important step towards platforming the culture and elevating it to a bigger level.”
Born in San Francisco as a first-generation immigrant, Habibeats recalls a childhood in which his musical tastes were shaped by Arabic music heard at family gatherings and community events, as well as the hip-hop emerging from San Francisco, one of the citadels of West Coast rap, from pioneers E-40 and Too Short to current artists such as LaRussell and G-Eazy.
“I was listening to a lot of Amr Diab, Hamid El Shaeri, Nancy Ajram and Cheb Mami, the classic Arabic pop acts that were hugely popular and being remixed and played everywhere. And of course there were classic dabke tunes, songs that have been around forever and sung by so many people,” he says.
“At the same time, I was born and raised in the US, so I was also exposed to a lot of Bay Area hip-hop and pop music from everywhere, through school, family, my uncle, events and parties.”
That expansive range fed into what would become his calling card: the Habibi House Parties, which began as a series of small club nights in Los Angeles in 2022, allowing him to flex those eclectic tastes while placing Arabic music more firmly within a club context.
Not fully aware of it at the time, Habibeats says those gigs – spaces where he could create remixes of Arabic and global club sounds while also testing original productions – went on to become a rallying point for the Arab diaspora as the nights grew into tours across Europe and Australia.
“For a lot of people, just coming to one of my events in the US and hearing that song in that setting is unusual,” he says. “When you grow up in a place where Arabic and Middle Eastern culture is not often represented positively, going to Habibi’s House and hearing those songs played in a contemporary way, mixed with contemporary music, makes you feel represented. It makes you feel like we are part of this too. That alone is a big deal.”
The mixes feel fluid, he adds, because they come from someone who grew up with an ear in both worlds. That can mean pairing Ajram’s Ya Tabtab with Brazilian baile funk rhythms, or dropping the original track Miami Mijwiz, which folds a Palestinian folk sample into shuddering Miami bass beats.
With social media accelerating his rise and widening his reach, Habibeats expects Arabic music to deepen its place in club culture. The next step, he suggests, is for international peers and listeners to begin playing his original tracks and creating their own remixes on their travels, or even at their own weddings.
For him, music is an extension of human connection, something that can travel widely when carried with the right intention.
“Meaningful representation can happen in different ways, but at its core it has to come from love, appreciation, understanding and real interest in the culture,” he says. “Seeing people from our diaspora and from the region representing our culture in these spaces matters because it makes people feel seen. And when people from outside the region want to engage with it, I’m all for that too.
“I want Arabic music and culture to be appreciated by everyone. It just has to come from a genuine place, not because it happens to be a trend.”
