Deena Abdelwahed

With one foot in experimentation and the other in tradition, DJ and producer Deena Abdelwahed has succeeded in putting the Tunisian scene on the electronic music map.

After starting out in a jazz band and making numerous appearances on the Tunisian electronic scene, the Tunisian producer and DJ moved to France in 2016. She signed with the Parisian label InFiné and released two EPs, Klabb (2017) and Dhakar (2020), and an album entitled Khonnar (2018), which was acclaimed by several international media outlets such as Pitchfork and The Guardian.

Self-taught and searching for the sound of the future, Deena constructs her sets like research laboratories, on the cutting edge of avant-garde club music. She creates hybrid DJ sets at the cutting edge of subcultures, notably her set at Sonar in 2017 (ranked in the NY Times’ Top 10 festivals), revealing the young Tunisian at festivals and events requiring a demanding club experience (Boiler Room, Concrete, Room For Resistance, Säule / Berghain, etc.).

Refusing to take the easy route and rejecting the artificial celebrity of a certain club scene, she continues her quest—to put Arabic music at the heart of the dance floor—with uncompromising determination. And above all, with her head held high!