عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Varieties

Aya Nakamura Asserts Musical Vision, Refuses to be Categorized

Aya Nakamura is 23 years old, she grew up in Seine-Saint-Denis. Photo Valery Hache / AFP - AFP
Aya Nakamura is 23 years old, she grew up in Seine-Saint-Denis. Photo Valery Hache / AFP - AFP
TT
20
TT

Aya Nakamura Asserts Musical Vision, Refuses to be Categorized

Aya Nakamura is 23 years old, she grew up in Seine-Saint-Denis. Photo Valery Hache / AFP - AFP
Aya Nakamura is 23 years old, she grew up in Seine-Saint-Denis. Photo Valery Hache / AFP - AFP

Aya Nakamura, the most listened to French artist around the world, said refuses to be categorized after she gained popularity thanks to her Afropop sound and street slang.

"I asserted my musical vision and that's what I'm most proud of," she told AFP.

Known as the arrogant star, Aya said: "I may be the most listened to (French) artist in the world, but I remain someone's mother, and someone's sister and the most important thing to me is to spend time with my family."

Her album "AYA" has been downloaded more than 12 million times on the Spotify platform, becoming the third most listened to album in the world -- ahead of the latest release by AC/DC.

When talking about these figures, the singer seems stunned.

"I didn't know that. It's an amazing thing, really," she noted.

"I was a little stressed, because I had wondered if I should do something similar to my second album Nakamura, while I wanted to do something else," she added.

However, Nakamura said she will continue "making the music she loves" while adding that she refuses to be categorized.

In her new album, she explores "love in all its aspects," in her own way, of course.

Her second album Nakamura (2018) is the one that changed her life. Driven by the two great hits Djadja (700 million views on YouTube) and Pookie, it has sold over a million copies.

In Djadja, she recounts her romantic setbacks with an ex-partner. The song was a hit and ranked number one in the Netherlands, a first for a French singer since Edith Piaf.

Then it was remixed by Colombian singer Maluma, a huge star in Latin America and the United States, who worked with Madonna and Shakira.

Born in Mali as Aya Danioko, she grew up on the outskirts of Paris surrounded by the music of her family of traditional singer-poets or "griots".

She caught her break after posting songs on social media, choosing the name Nakamura in homage to a character from the American television series "Heroes".

Most Viewed

 
Varieties

Water Levels Plummet at Drought-Hit Iraqi Reservoir

Kochar Jamal Tawfeeq, director of the Dukan Dam facility, gives an interview by the reservoir northwest of Iraq's northeastern city of Sulaimaniyah in the autonomous Kurdistan region on June 4, 2025, where waters have been receding due to a mix of factors including lower rainfall, severe drought, and diversion of inflowing rivers from Iran. (AFP)
Kochar Jamal Tawfeeq, director of the Dukan Dam facility, gives an interview by the reservoir northwest of Iraq's northeastern city of Sulaimaniyah in the autonomous Kurdistan region on June 4, 2025, where waters have been receding due to a mix of factors including lower rainfall, severe drought, and diversion of inflowing rivers from Iran. (AFP)
TT
20
TT

Water Levels Plummet at Drought-Hit Iraqi Reservoir

Kochar Jamal Tawfeeq, director of the Dukan Dam facility, gives an interview by the reservoir northwest of Iraq's northeastern city of Sulaimaniyah in the autonomous Kurdistan region on June 4, 2025, where waters have been receding due to a mix of factors including lower rainfall, severe drought, and diversion of inflowing rivers from Iran. (AFP)
Kochar Jamal Tawfeeq, director of the Dukan Dam facility, gives an interview by the reservoir northwest of Iraq's northeastern city of Sulaimaniyah in the autonomous Kurdistan region on June 4, 2025, where waters have been receding due to a mix of factors including lower rainfall, severe drought, and diversion of inflowing rivers from Iran. (AFP)

Water levels at Iraq's vast Dukan Dam reservoir have plummeted as a result of dwindling rains and further damming upstream, hitting millions of inhabitants already impacted by drought with stricter water rationing.

Amid these conditions, visible cracks have emerged in the retreating shoreline of the artificial lake, which lies in northern Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region and was created in the 1950s.

Dukan Lake has been left three quarters empty, with its director Kochar Jamal Tawfeeq explaining its reserves currently stand at around 1.6 billion cubic meters of water out of a possible seven billion.

That is "about 24 percent" of its capacity, the official said, adding that the level of water in the lake had not been so low in roughly 20 years.

Satellite imagery analyzed by AFP shows the lake's surface area shrank by 56 percent between the end of May 2019, the last year it was completely full, and the beginning of June 2025.

Tawfeeq blamed climate change and a "shortage of rainfall" explaining that the timing of the rains had also become irregular.

Over the winter season, Tawfeeq said the Dukan region received 220 millimeters (8.7 inches) of rain, compared to a typical 600 millimeters.

- 'Harvest failed' -

Upstream damming of the Little Zab River, which flows through Iran and feeds Dukan, was a secondary cause of the falling water levels, Tawfeeq explained.

Also buffeted by drought, Iran has built dozens of structures on the river to increase its own water reserves.

Baghdad has criticized these kinds of dams, built both by Iran and neighboring Türkiye, accusing them of significantly restricting water flow into Iraq via the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

Iraq, and its 46 million inhabitants, have been intensely impacted by the effects of climate change, experiencing rising temperatures, year-on-year droughts and rampant desertification.

At the end of May, the country's total water reserves were at their lowest level in 80 years.

On the slopes above Dukan lies the village of Sarsian, where Hussein Khader Sheikhah, 57, was planting a summer crop on a hectare of land.

The farmer said he hoped a short-term summer crop of the kind typically planted in the area for an autumn harvest -- cucumbers, melons, chickpeas, sunflower seeds and beans -- would help him offset some of the losses over the winter caused by drought.

In winter, in another area near the village, he planted 13 hectares mainly of wheat.

"The harvest failed because of the lack of rain," he explained, adding that he lost an equivalent of almost $5,700 to the poor yield.

"I can't make up for the loss of 13 hectares with just one hectare near the river," he added.

- 'Stricter rationing' -

The water shortage at Dukan has affected around four million people downstream in the neighboring Sulaimaniyah and Kirkuk governorates, including their access to drinking water.

For more than a month, water treatment plants in Kirkuk have been trying to mitigate a sudden, 40 percent drop in the supplies reaching them, according to local water resource official Zaki Karim.

In a country ravaged by decades of conflict, with crumbling infrastructure and floundering public policies, residents already receive water intermittently.

The latest shortages are forcing even "stricter rationing" and more infrequent water distributions, Karim said.

In addition to going door-to-door to raise awareness about water waste, the authorities were also cracking down on illegal access to the water network.

In the province of roughly two million inhabitants, the aim is to minimize the impact on the provincial capital of Kirkuk.

"If some treatment plants experience supply difficulties, we will ensure that there are no total interruptions, so everyone can receive their share," Karim said.