Aga Khan Music Awards announces 2025 finalists

Aga Khan Music Awards announces 2025 finalists

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Geneva, Switzerland, 1 October 2025- The Aga Khan Music Awards (AKMA) revealed today 22 finalists for its 2025 cycle. The winners selected by the Awards Master Jury will be announced on 4 November and honoured at an award ceremony on 22 November at London's Southbank Centre. The ceremony will be the centrepiece of a four-day festival celebrating music from the Great East, presented by AKMA in collaboration with the EFG London Jazz Festival. The laureates will share a prize fund of $500,000.

Established in 2018 by His Late Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan IV and his brother, Prince Amyn Aga Khan, the Music Awardshonour exceptional achievement across diverse musical cultures shaped by Islam. They recognise individuals, groups and institutions whose work sustains and reinvents musical traditions while promoting spiritual insight, social cohesion and cultural resilience.

The Awards are governed today by an advisory council co-chaired by His Highness Prince Rahim Aga Khan V and his uncle, Prince Amyn Aga Khan, and are open to individuals, ensembles and organisations without restriction as to gender, geography, religion, or nationality.

The 22 finalists were selected from more than 300 nominees put forward by an international network of nominators and represent 16 countries. Among them are cosmopolitan musicians with flourishing international careers, as well as revered tradition-bearers all but unknown beyond their own community.

Awards finalists include Mohi Bahauddin Dagar, who represents the 20th generation of a hereditary lineage specialising in the performance of dhrupad, an ancient contemplative style of Hindustani (North Indian) music; master balafon player Mamadou Diabaté, who works with students in his native Burkina Faso as well as internationally to preserve the Sambla balafon language; Hamid El Kasri, a maâlem (master musician) of the gnawa tradition from Ksar El Kebir, Morocco, who has engaged in adventurous collaborations with artists such as Joe Zawinul, Snarky Puppy and Jacob Collier; and Farah Kaddour, a Lebanese innovator on the buzuq who integrates her artistic practice into humanitarian projects for communities displaced by war or extreme poverty. A full list of Music Awards finalists is available below.

In addition to a share of the prize fund, AKMA winners gain access to professional development opportunities such as commissions, recordings, management contracts and support for educational and preservation initiatives. Aligned with the Aga Khan Music Programme's broader mission, the Awards aim to advance pluralism, tolerance, social cohesion and global understanding through music.

The Aga Khan Music Awards festival will take place in venues across London from 20 to 23 November, with the full programme of events to be announced on 8 October.

2025 AKMA finalists

• Qalali Folk Band(Bahrain) - seafaring musical traditions

• Kamilya Jubran(Palestine) - oud and qanun player, vocalist and composer

• Kyriakos Kalaidzidis(Greece) - oud player, composer and music scholar

• Derya Turkan(Turkey) - classical kemençe player, composer and teacher

• Senny Camara(Senegal) - kora and guitar player, singer, composer and sound engineer

• Farah Kaddour(Lebanon) - buzuq player, composer and music scholar

• Hamid El Kasri(Morocco) - singer and guembri player

• Flying Carpet Festival(Iran) - mobile festival for children living in difficult places

• Mamadou Diabaté(Burkina Faso) - master balafon player, composer and educator

• Ghalia Benali(Tunisia) - singer, composer, actress, dancer and visual artist

• Juman Latif(Pakistan) - Sufi musician and educator

• Ali Kazemi(Iran) - tar and setar player, composer, educator and scholar

• Ustad Noor Bakhsh(Pakistan) - benju player

• Layth Sidiq(Jordan) - violinist, composer and educator

• Mariam Bagayoko(Mali) - singer, dancer and instrumentalist

• Es'hak Baluch Nasab(Iran) - shervândi master

• Mohi Bahauddin Dagar(India) - dhrupad singer, rudra veena player and educator

• Egyptian Center for Culture and Arts Makan(Egypt) - safeguarding Egypt's traditional music

• Hayaf Yassine(Lebanon) - santur virtuoso, educator and scholar

• Rihab Azar(Syria) - oud virtuoso

• Naseer and Nazeer Ahmed Khan Warsi(India) - traditional qawwali performers

• Ustad Naseeruddin Saami(Pakistan) - classical vocalist specialising in khayal

For more information, please contact:
Mauro Silva
[email protected]

SwitzerlandAga Khan Music ProgrammeMusic

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