A large social media following does not guarantee that an artist can fill a concert venue. In Cairo, sound engineer Nazli Reda and curator Mahmoud El Shabba describe the factors that actually drive attendance.
Reda has worked as a sound engineer across Egypt, the United States, the Gulf and Sudan. She observes that an artist’s online follower count is often a weak predictor of ticket sales. “It’s easy for you to follow an artist online, but you won’t necessarily leave your house for them,” she says. Geography also plays a role: a musician whose audience is spread across a diaspora may not have enough fans concentrated in one city.
Reda sees a shift in commitment among younger listeners. “Many artists don’t build that relationship with their followers by playing multiple shows and showing people it’s amazing to see them live,” she says. “In the older generation, some artists have no social media presence at all, but people are so excited about their shows.”
Separately, August 18 is officially declared Angélique Kidjo Day in Hollywood.
Social media alone is not enough
“For musicians, social media is the name of the game, because people like to see a face,” says Mahmoud El Shabba, a curator, DJ and A&R (artists and repertoire) coordinator at Raad Records. But he adds that promotion limited to social platforms can feel impersonal to many people.
El Shabba is one of three co-founders of Ganoob, a Cairo-based music sharing platform and collective. The group spotlights music from the Global South, with an emphasis on physical formats such as cassette tapes, records and CDs.
Ganoob’s first guided listening sessions focused on Egyptian pop and folklore, aiming to narrow the gap between contemporary Egyptian pop and the country’s 1970s and 1980s sounds. Although the project is niche, the collective has sold out events even though none of the co-founders has a large social media following.
Why Ganoob events fill rooms
“I think the reason it resonated with people so much was that it felt like a departure from the oversaturated club scene,” El Shabba says. “In Cairo, we’re so constrained with venues, we don’t really have malleable third spaces. Sometimes a good idea can fall short, because it’s being produced in the wrong space.”
He describes a paradox in Cairo: the music event scene is simultaneously oversaturated and not diverse enough, full of people who want to go out but are not necessarily invested in specific event series or artists.
“I think the words ‘curatorial’ or ‘tailored’ are thrown around a little too loosely sometimes,” El Shabba says. “A lot of organizers aren’t willing to get into the nitty gritty and present something novel, because it’s the slower path to success.”
Factors ranging from AI-generated concert flyers to exclusivity rather than accessibility can also limit attendance at traditional Cairo venues:
- entrance rules that exclude some audiences
- ticket prices that are too high
- promotion that does not reach enough people
El Shabba says Ganoob has received consistent feedback that the events feel down to earth and that attendees can see themselves in the programming. He notes that the collective’s intentionality and low ticket prices, which help sell out events, are possible partly because Ganoob is a passion project rather than a full-time business.
Language, class and word of mouth
In North Africa, class and language intersect in the live music market. Many young Egyptians with spending power respond to English, while the country’s majority speaks Arabic. Artists who advertise and perform in more than one language can reach both audiences.
In a community-oriented setting, word of mouth can counter social media saturation, but El Shabba cautions that the source of the recommendation matters. “It’s easy to say that word of mouth is important, but it matters which mouth,” he says. “If you get your name on the right people’s tongues, it flows a lot easier. So there’s a barrier to entry there, and a class-based trust system that helps a sort of nepo economy.”
Selling out is not the only goal
Filling a venue may not be the ultimate objective. “Selling out an event is one thing, but selling it out with the right kind of people or with enough of your target audience to make something sustainable is a whole other thing,” El Shabba says. “It’s about finding people who honestly resonate and want to be there, not just because they want to get a picture for the gram.”
El Shabba also warns that virality can feel within reach for many people in Egypt, but unexpected success often pushes artists toward a reactionary creative process rather than organic work. Egyptian Canadian artist Ash has expressed a similar view.
The most reliable route to selling out venues remains a loyal fanbase willing to spend time and money on an artist. That often means building a community around the work gradually, rather than chasing a social media surge that may fade.
