Draft:Sarah El Messiry

Sarah El Messiry (born 8 February 1998, Cairo), professionally known as Felukah, is an Egyptian musician and songwriter who has been based in New York since 2017. Her stage name is a reference to felucca, an Egyptian sail boat.

Following the independent release of her English - Arabic debut album Citadel (2019) she became associated with a neo-soulful hip-hop sound. After signing with indie label Abu Recordings, she released her sophomore album Dream 23 (2020). Since lockdown she has released multiple singles as well as her most recent project titled The Love Serum (2022).

She has collaborated with artists like Malik Polo, Dena Anuk$a, and MC Bolbol.

Early life and education
Felukah grew up in the suburb of Maadi in Cairo, Egypt. In 2017, she moved with her brother, Malik El Messiry, to New York to study creative writing after encouragement from her high school teacher. She attended Hunter College to study creative writing and would perform poetry in her spare time at the Nuyorican Poets Café on 3rd Street. To support herself she worked two part-time jobs.

She has published multiple works of poetry under the pen name Kahirati (translating to my Cairo ).  

Career
Felukah began uploading songs onto Soundcloud in 2018. She's described her sound as being inspired by Nas, Andre 3000, Fairuz and Erykah Badu.

Her debut single, "The Rain", details her experiences with sexual harassment. In particular, she recalls an experience from 2015, when photos of El Messiry in a bikini were non-consensually shared among some male students in her high school, and names the perpetrators by name. She later chose to perform 'The Rain' when she was invited to perform at her former high school.

On 25 November 2022, Felukah performed the Coca-Cola anthem, "A Kind of Magic", alongside Donna Poala and Tamtam for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar at the FIFA fan festival. The song remixes the 1986 song "A Kind of Magic" by British Rock band Queen, and features Felukah, Donna Poala and Tamtam.

Citadel (2019)
After the release of her debut EP 'Yansoon' on SoundCloud, Felukah independently released her debut album 'Citadel' which AZEEMA describes as reminiscent of soul and RnB artists such as Lauryn Hill and Erykah Badu. 'Ask the birds', her most streamed song of the album, was a collab between herself and Mc Bolbol. She performed 'Ask the birds' at a launch party for the New York clothing company 'Good Style' at Dacia, a small art gallery on the lower east side. In August 2019, she went on to release a music video for this song, which was produced by Mustafa Moslemany from DROOGS, an Egyptian contemporary cultural collective.

In 2020 she released two more music videos for Citadel, one being for the title track 'Citadel' and for 'Ms. Smooth'. The former is produced by Mustafa Zaghloul who also works at Abu Recordings, the label she is signed to. As Felukah seeks to celebrate Egyptian culture, the video features Tanoura dancer Mohamed Baf, a traditional Egyptian folk dancer in the background whilst she sings into the camera. The music video for 'Ms Smooth' was directed by Leah Rustomjee and featured the dance crew B.A.D.

Dream 23 (2020)
In 2020 she released her sophomore album Dream 23 which takes inspiration from old RnB and Hip-hop and incorporates lo-fi and soul sounds. This is her first project under the indie music label Abu Recordings, a Berlin- New York based indie label ran by artists Marek Razzouk and Paolo Cicilioni who focus on signing Talent from the Arab diaspora. Leading up to the release, she released the singles 'Apocalypse' and '22+1'. The concept of this album surrounds the idea of heliocentricity and the idea of becoming older with each spin around the sun. Shortly after the release of the album, Spotify featured her on the ' Arab X' playlist.

For her first single ' 22+1' she released an accompanying Live session video on June 2020, later followed by a lyrics video in which English and Arabic letters are mixed to present the lyrics of the song; the video is produced by Gabo Shady. She also released music videos for 'Lookin' at me ft. Malik Polo', 'Heliocentric' and 'Apocalypse'. 'Heliocentric' is not only the title of one of the songs from the album but also the idea behind the album title. In the music video for the song, released in September 2020 and directed by Mazen Bayoumy, she is seen walking along a beach and drawing a sun in the sand.

The Love Serum (2022)
Her third album 'The Love Serum ', released in 2022, takes inspiration from Arab futurism. She drew inspiration from her time at Hunter college where she studied Afro futurism while studying Afro-Caribbean literature. The album draws upon Afrofuturism to discuss themes such as feminism and colonialism in the lyrics of the songs. She continues the thread of spirituality from her previous work by creating an imaginary drug ' Rahma Zinc', which allows you to feel deep empathy.

She worked with many producers on this album including her brother Malik El-Messiry as well as multiple artist leading and managing the label she is signed to. This includes Mostafa Zaghloul, Paolo Cicilioni and Ibn Itaka. She also collaborated with New York based Moroccan singer-songwriter Dounia on the track 'say hi to my demons'. Felukah released one music video for this album which accompanied the song 'Desert Woman' in which Felukah and a group of girls are dancing through the desert. The video was released in November 2022 and is produced by Puerta Azul and Noor Studios.