News
Sole DXB, founded back in 2010, returns this weekend. Running from December 12th to 14th at Dubai Design District, the festival is, first and foremost, a celebration of fashion, food, and sound. From underground beats to headline-grabbing sets, music is the pulse of Sole — an independent festival that has consistently pulled exponentially growing crowds year after year. What began as an intimate “sneaker summit” in a warehouse (yes, the jamjar in Al Quoz) has now evolved into a cultural landmark people impatiently wait for. It provides a space for us to come together, and it makes that “us” feel genuinely welcomed and celebrated. The diversity in the crowd mirrors a lineup that somehow tops itself year after year. With each artist Sole announced on Instagram, people went into a frenzy in the comments. The festival knows what the people want. The final and full lineup is a beautifully curated collision of genres, scenes, and sounds. Sure, Kaytranada, Tyla, and Loyle Carner are the marquee draws this year, but we also want to nudge your ears toward a few names you shouldn’t sleep on.
1. The Tasty Biscuits
Bringing real flavour to Sole this year, The Tasty Biscuits will take to the Main Stage on December 14th, serving up a rich blend of their signature R&B, Afro-beat pulses, and velvety soul they’ve become known for. The Dubai-based 6 piece collective has spent the last three years building a reputation for performances that feel less like concerts and more like being welcomed into someone’s living room —honest, unfiltered, and full of heart. Those that have heard them live know how their music moves beyond the usual, boring love-song territory, tapping into all the messy, beautiful in-betweens of being human.
2. Tinariwen
Born from exile and shaped by the vast silence of the Sahara, Tinariwen began as a small circle of Tuareg musicians using music as their compass through conflict, displacement, and longing. Led by Ibrahim Ag Alhabib — who built his first guitar from an oil can, the collective became the voice of a generation of ishumar: young Tuareg men scattered across deserts and refugee camps, carrying stories of rebellion, resilience, and home. What started as cassette-traded songs around campfires grew into an unmistakable sound that blended tradition, poetry, and desert blues with raw honesty. Today, Tinariwen stands as one of the most influential desert-rock groups in the world. Their music, steeped in hypnotic guitar lines, call-and-response vocals, and the spirit of the Ténéré — has travelled far beyond Mali, earning Grammys, global tours, and a loyal worldwide following. Yet the essence remains unchanged: a band rooted in community, memory, and the unshakeable pulse of our land, the desert. At Sole DXB, they bring that legacy to life with a performance that feels both an ode to their heritage, yet electrifyingly rooted in the present.
3. Venna
A lifelong musician in the truest sense, Venna started on piano at six before discovering the alto sax at twelve, a shift that set the eclectic brilliance we get to witness in motion. From performing -arts school to gigging with different bands, he carved his sound early, long before the world realised how often they were already hearing him. His fingerprints sit quietly but unmistakably across some of the biggest records of the past decade. From Wizkid, Burna Boy, Snoh Aalegra, 6lack, Greentea Peng, J Hus, AJ Tracey, Knucks, and many others. After years shaping other people’s visions, 2021 marked his own breakthrough with Venology, a debut that welcomed it into his intimate world. His work on Burna Boy’s African Giantearned him a Grammy nomination; the following year, he took home the award for “Alarm Clock” on Twice as Tall. Add to that a pandemic-delayed adventure across the US, a world tour with Wizkid, and a run of electrifying performances with Yussef Dayes and it has become clear that Venna plans to stay on stage. By 2022 and 2023, his trajectory was undeniable. Multiple Grammy nominations, a chart-climbing Knucks project he executive-produced, and a second EP, Equinox, that pushed deeper into live instrumentation and global collaboration. Singles with Yussef Dayes, Rocco Palladino, Masego, Mick Jenkins, Jada — the list goes on. Two instantly sold-out debut shows in London confirmed what the music world already knew: Venna’s universe had its own gravitational pull. He spent the rest of the year producing for US and Canadian artists, contributing to Amaarae and Perry, and leaving his mark all over Yussef Dayes’ Black Classical Music. And he closed 2023 with the dual release “Hizuki” and “Perfect Divide,” a fitting finale to a run defined by momentum. Now, he brings that same magic to Sole DXB at Stage 2 on Sunday.
4. Pa Saieu
Pa Salieu’s rise has always felt like a collision of worlds — the raw pulse of Coventry, the spirit of The Gambia, and a voice shaped by folk tradition, UK rap, dancehall, and everything in between. He grew up between continents, raised first by his grandparents in West Africa before returning to the Midlands and slowly, instinctively, finding his way into music. The stories he inherited, the cadence, the folklore, the depth can be seen, seeped into his delivery, giving his sound that unmistakable weight people felt the moment Frontline dropped in 2020. The track blew open his universe, cementing him as one of the UK’s most urgent new voices and earning him BBC’s Sound of 2021. His debut mixtape Send Them to Coventry followed: sharp, unfiltered, melodic, rooted in lived experience yet expansive in its vision. It wasn’t long before he was fielding praise from artists he’d grown up admiring, performing on global stages, and shaping a sound that refuses to fit inside a single box. What drives Pa now is evolution. Pushing his craft beyond the limits of artistry, reconnecting with heritage while carrying West Africa forward in his own way. That’s the heartbeat of Afrikan Rebel, the EP where he weaves Gambian influence with contemporary Afrobeats, linking Lagos, London, and the Midlands. Collaborations with Tay Iwar, Zlatan, Obongjayar and more show the breadth of his world, a world where folk lineage meets modern grit, where rhythm is memory, and where his voice moves between grit and melody like it’s second nature. And across every release, every feature, every live moment, Pa Salieu is building on his virtue of stubbornness. His stubbornness stands firm in his refusal to dilute his identity, tone down his truth, or disconnect from the cultural roots that shaped him. In his words, he offers “Malcom X, stubbornness” Pa Salieu takes the Sole DXB Main Stage on Sunday 14th December.
5. Shabjdeed and Al Nather
Shabjdeed and Al Nather make music that feels magnetic, and so, so alive in its ingenuiety. Their debut album Sindibad el Ward shook Arabic hip-hop in 2019, reshaping expectations of how Palestinian rap could sound. Dark, synth-heavy production from Al Nather collides with Shabjdeed’s elastic flow, a mix of sarcasm, poetry, and Palestinian slang that lands with a raw emotional charge. Tracks like NKD GLG and Arab Style became shorthand for a new sonic identity — a world built from their streets, their humour, their contradictions, their survival. Together, they created a sound so uniqely their own. The BLTNM duo will close out Sole DXB 2025 on Sunday, December 14th — concluding the three-day festival.
