Marwa Loud

With her self-empowering, straight-talking raps, and infectious dance floor anthems, Marwa Outamghart (December 12, 1996), also known as Marwa Loud, announced herself as one of France's new urban-pop queens in 2018 when she reached Number 2 in the charts with her debut album Loud. Growing up in Strasbourg in a French-Moroccan family, she idolized Rihanna and political rapper Diam's in her teens, first gaining attention after posting a clip of herself singing “Temps perdu” in January 2017. Her tropical R&B sound and heartfelt rhymes soon attracted record label interest and, after playing her first gig in front of 300 people, she signed to rapper Lartiste's Purple Money company and relocated to Paris. In the same year she featured on DJ Sem's summer club singalong “Mi Corazon,” Jul's electro-rap favorite “Je ne me vois pas briller” and released her first solo single “Mehdi,” but things really took off when her jumping dance track “Fallait pas” stormed into the Top 10 in 2018 and clocked up more than 100 million views on video-sharing platforms. Full of euphoric pop hooks and good-time Saturday night energy, her album Loud (2018) helped her build up an army of followers and she won praise for capturing the spirit of young women while attempting to take down the bravado of many of her male rap contemporaries. Tracks like “Bad Boy” and “Billet” were also popular calling cards and her web series Marwa's Life was a hit with fans before she returned in 2019 to play her first concert in Casablanca and release the singles “T'es où?” and “Oh la folle.” Both tracks were featured in her second full-length My Life (2019), which climbed to Number 11 on the French charts and was certified gold after selling 50,000 copies. Preceded by the singles “Allez les gros” (2020) with Naza and “Bimbo” (2021) with Moha K, a third LP titled Again saw the light in 2021.