Shafei AlMadani.

Shafei AlMadani found the piano before he found words. He was two years old the first time he sat at the keys, and it stuck a natural ear that catches a melody once and holds onto it.

For Shafei, music is a way of saying what words can’t. Feeling, without explanation. A language everyone already speaks. His writing starts with real life. Something that happens to him, or something he watches happen to someone else, a moment worth holding onto and he takes it to the piano to work out what it sounded like.

That instinct shows up in how freely he moves between genres. Classical folded into EDM. Rock running up against rap. He treats genre as a starting point rather than a rule. Emirati pianist Shafei is inspired by different musical heritages, blending influences from across genres and cultures to create a sound that is uniquely his own.