Reflecting on her Saudi background, LA-based singer-songwriter TAMTAM focuses on bridging the cultural divide between East and West while championing issues of identity, gender equality, freedom, and empowerment. Born in Riyadh, the Los Angeles-based singer has gained a following for her socially conscious music and natural beauty – namely, the bleached, fuzzy coils that point to her Arabian roots.
This year saw the Los Angeles premiere of her new single and video “Rise” directed by acclaimed Saudi-born actor and director Meshal Al Jaser, as an exploration of arranged marriage. This new artistic collaboration came on the heels of the single and video “Drive”, a meditation on women’s liberation and gender equality, which was released to coincide with the passing of new laws allowing women to drive for the first time in Saudi Arabia.
Tamtam is a Global Change Ambassador for Roundtable Global. She performed at the organization’s first Los Angeles Global Youth Awards last month. In her ambassadorial role, she joins a dynamic group of leaders, policy makers, entrepreneurs, educators, activists, artists and young people passionate about changing the way we exist on this planet.
In April 2018, she performed alongside Grammy award-winning, British soul singer Joss Stone at Kuwait Rising, a festival of emerging music from the Arab world and beyond, produced by Kuwaiti Multimedia Artist and social entrepreneur Zahed Sultan.
Inspired by music icons like Michael Jackson, Tamtam began exploring her voice when she was eleven years-old. At age fifteen Tamtam launched her music career with her first single “Little Girl” produced by Sultan. In light of the reservations of her Saudi friends and family, who warned Tamtam against showing her face online, she agreed to blur her face in the accompanying video when it premiered on YouTube in December 2012. This experience inspired the singer to adopt her moniker, Tamtam—a nickname referencing an African drum.
Tamtam is a Global Change Ambassador for Roundtable Global. She performed at the organization’s first Los Angeles Global Youth Awards last month. In her ambassadorial role, she joins a dynamic group of leaders, policy makers, entrepreneurs, educators, activists, artists and young people passionate about changing the way we exist on this planet.
VOGUE / TAMTAM WEBSITE
