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Tabla player at the 8th International Music Festival in Kuwait

Kuwait's musical traditions were well-recorded until the Gulf War, when Iraq invaded the country and destroyed the archive. Nevertheless, Kuwait has retained a vital music industry, both long before the war and after ^[1]. Kuwaiti music reflects the diverse influences of many peoples on the culture of Kuwait, including East African and Indian music.

Kuwait is known as the center, along with Bahrain for sawt, a bluesy style of music made popular in the 1970s by Shadi al Khaleej (the Bird Song of the Gulf). Nabil Shaeil and Abdullah El Rowaished are the most popular modern sawt performers, who include influences from techno and Europop in their music; Kuwaiti sawt musicians are well-known across the Gulf region ^[2]. Other popular groups include the long-running Al-Budoor Band.

Traditional Kuwaiti music is mostly performed by women in private, with some all-female bands performing for public celebrations (most women never sang or danced in public). Simple percussion instruments, like the small mirwas drums, and clapping were usually the only instruments used. The Bedouin are known for an instrument called the rubabah, while the oud, tanbarah (string instrument) and habban (bagpipe) are also widespread ^[3]

Wedding songs include the Al-Fann, performed by percussionists and singers, all female, who also dance the Al-Khamary (individually). Al-Sameri was another kind of wedding dance.

Al-Fareesa was a dance performed on certain national and religious holiday by women disguised as men. The dance acts out a battle between a horseman and two attackers. Other traditional dances include the men's sword dance ardah, accompanied by drums and tambourines, and the women's khamari, tanboura, fraisah, zifan and samiri dances ^[4].

"Al Arda Al Bahariya" is a well-known Kuwaiti sailor song, as are the al-Nahma, a class of songs that accompanied many sailing activities. Mawleds are recitations of sections from Muhammad's biography, chanted on religious holidays.

Kuwait has a reputation for being the central musical influence of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, with only the UAE having a recent line of talents. Over the last decade of satellite TV stations, there has been a stream of Kuwaiti Pop Bands that have been successful in reaching other Arab countries with their unique style of pop. One band is known as Miami has even had a band member who has had a premature death in a helicoptor crash.

• ↑  Badley, Bill. "Sounds of the Arabian Peninsula". 2000. In Broughton, Simon and Ellingham, Mark with McConnachie, James and Duane, Orla (Ed.), World Music, Vol. 1: Africa, Europe and the Middle East, pp 351-354. Rough Guides Ltd, Penguin Books. ISBN 1-85828-636-0
• ↑  Art and Craft. Kuwaitinfo.com. Retrieved on September 27, 2005.