In recent years, two terms have been used interchangeably to describe the new wave of Arab diasporic music: Arabizi and A-pop. But a closer look reveals that they speak to two distinct cultural phenomena. Arabizi is the broader umbrella – a wide constellation of diasporic Arab musicians releasing music in multiple languages, often blending Arabic and English. The list spans hundreds of artists, most prominently Palestinian power duo Elyanna and Saint Levant.
A-pop, by contrast, is far more narrowly defined. It describes a specific sound and aesthetic within the Arabizi wave – one that leans heavily on the charm and visual-sonic language of K-pop: sweetness, maximalist production, sticky melodies, and globally accessible pop formats.
Google the term A-pop and one name emerges again and again, the artist who has more or less carved out what an Arab take on K-pop can sound like: Bahjat.
The Tripoli-born, Malta-based independent pop star began releasing music in the mid-2010s, drawing international attention with his debut EP 3:11 AM (2017), home to the breakout hit “Hometown Smile,” now sitting above 30 million streams on Spotify. More hits followed – 2019’s “Istanbul” and 2020’s “Halba” – blending global and Arab influences with boy-band sway and meticulous pop polish.
The idea of A-pop began crystallizing in 2020, when Bahjat released an A-pop Version of “Hometown Smile,” setting off a run of singles that doubled down on that sound and embraced every possible K-pop parallel. Among them: cultivating a fanbase as dedicated and mobilized as an army – a defining feature of the K-pop universe. In an email to Rolling Stone MENA, the Libyan singer estimates his fanbase, affectionately called the BahjaTroops, at around one million strong.
But the sweet-boy charm did not land evenly across the region. Bahjat’s style – soft, tender, and openly vulnerable – was perceived by some listeners across the region as “too feminine.” Combined with lyrics that occasionally confronted toxic family dynamics, the reaction sparked a wave of trolling and hate comments on social media, peaking in 2024 and ultimately pushing Bahjat to take a year-long break from releasing music.
Last October, he returned with his comeback single “LOCO.” And today, he premieres his follow-up, “Maybe I’m the Villain,” exclusively on Rolling Stone MENA ahead of its wide release.
The track comes wrapped in a highly compressed, high-gloss production reminiscent of the Loudness Wars era, and stands as one of Bahjat’s most pop-forward offerings yet: sticky verses, an instantly addictive chorus, lyrics that spin public controversy into relevant themes of identity and peer pressure, and honeyed, disarming vocals that make the song irresistibly first-listen-friendly.
While A-pop may read as a breakthrough to some and a provocation to others, Bahjat is undeniably pulling Arab pop into unfamiliar terrain. Arabizi artists have long drawn from Western pop, but his decision to look elsewhere – toward a completely different sonic universe – gives the experiment its charge. When a musical shift sparks debate, fascination, and a bit of unease all at once, it often means the idea has landed – and that it’s moving toward something too intriguing to ignore.
