After wowing TV audiences across the region as finalists in the The X Factor Middle East, Arab boy band The 5 have kicked off their recording career with the release of their debut single.
The band earned a reputation as the Arab world’s answer to One Direction by thrilling fans with their on-screen battle to reach the final stages of the MBC talent show, eventually losing out to Saudi Arabia’s Hamza Hawsawi.
Shortly afterwards, the quintet were signed to Sony Music Middle East and, after a considerable groundswell of fan excitement, their debut single El Donia Shabab was released on Thursday. Despite being sung in Arabic, the tune sports a distinctly radio-friendly, dance-pop sound, which the band hope will open new doors.
“It was a new style for us,” says 19-year-old Algerian heart-throb Said Karmouz, speaking a day after the song’s release. “It’s kind of a mix of Arabian music and international music.”
The song was recorded in Beirut by renowned producer Michel Fadel and features lyrics from hitmaker Nizar Francis.
“It’s very youthful, very vibrant,” says Lebanese bandmate Kazem Chamas, also 19. “I feel it really reflects who we are.”
It is rare opportunity for an Arab act to be signed to a major western record label – when we meet in Sony’s offices, images of stars from Michael Jackson to Pharrell to 1D line the walls. Gazing at the images, Egyptian singer Ahmed Hassan, 22, admits he was “very nervous” about how the public would react to the single.
"In the Middle East, a lot of singers have been in all these programmes – The X Factor, The Voice, Star Academy, Arab Idol, Arabs Got Talent – and after they finish, no one knows them, they disappear. I was so nervous I didn't sleep for two days."
The group have adopted the UAE as a temporary base to launch the single, having spent the past two weeks here, and will remain in the coming weeks while they continue with promotional duties. Social media has relayed the band’s activities throughout the emirate, recording and jamming in the studio, meeting fans, sightseeing and, of course, posing for selfies.
“It’s the place in the Arab world to be right now,” says Hassan. “It’s the most safe – I’m from Egypt and the situation in Egypt right now isn’t very safe.”
Karmouz says: “Dubai is fabulous. I’d love to live here – but not in this weather.”
The 5 are yet to perform a live concert outside of a TV studio, but having adopted Dubai as their operational base for now, members hint the UAE may be the scene of their live debut.
“We’d love to have our first concert here,” says Karmouz.
Such a performance would doubtless be an emotional day – not just for The 5 but also for the legions of adoring, mainly female, fans that they’ve attracted from across the region.
“When I went back to my country, I found hundreds of people waiting for me in the airport,” says Hassan. “It’s an amazing feeling.”
Moroccan Adil Echbiy, who left the UAE and moved to Beirut after he made it through the audition stages of The X Factor, says: "Some people recognise us in Dubai, but it's especially in our countries." The 29-year-old is considered the band's "big brother". "When [bandmate] BMD came to visit me in Morocco, we stopped the traffic – it's crazy."
Moving on to what all their adoring female fans want to know – are the boys single?
“The answer they want to hear is yes,” says the group’s 21-year-old rapper, Mohamed Bouhezza, coyly.
“Girls are jealous – it’s complicated. You can say I’m single,” says the Algerian, who goes by the stage name BMD.
While boy bands are nothing new in the Arab world, it is The 5’s international make-up – with members from four countries – that may explain their mass appeal. The sense that they could be making history doesn’t seem lost on the band.
“We’re just at the beginning, but there’s no other band from different countries like us,” says Karmouz, “so this is something new for the world.”
It’s this novelty that the band’s management hope will help them crossover to a global audience. The “boys” certainly aren’t short of ambition, and with plans to sing in English or French, they hold, not unrealistic, expectations of commanding large crowds in the western world.
“I see big stages, tours, a lot of songs, I expect a lot of things for The 5,” says BMD.
“I don’t want to only be famous in the Arab world. I want to perform on huge stages in America and Europe – we have the chance.”
Chamas says: “One year from now we’re going to have gone farther than the Arab world, we’re going to crossover internationally. You like my confidence, right?”
• El Donia Shabab is available on iTunes. Check out Scene & Heard this week for daily interviews with each member of The 5. Today, we speak to Egyptian Ahmed Hassan
rgarratt@thenational.ae