Shadia Mansour / شادية منصور

Shadia Mansour (Arabic: شادية منصور‎ Shādiyah Manṣūr, born 1985), also known as "the first lady of Arabic hip hop" is a British-born Palestinian singer and MC who sings and raps in Arabic and English. Much of her music focuses on Middle East politics.

Mansour was born in London in 1985. Her parents are Christian Palestinians originally from Haifa and Nazareth.[2] She grew up in the UK and spent summers visiting relatives in Haifa and Nazareth, including the Israeli/Palestinian actor, writer, director and activist Juliano Mer-Khamis, who is her cousin.[2] Influenced by Arabic performers such as Fairouz, Umm Kulthum and Mohammed Abdel Wahab,[1][2] Mansour began singing at Palestinian protest rallies as a child and she became known in London’s Palestinian community for performing classical Arab songs of protest at an early age.[3] She went on to study performing arts before beginning her career as an MC.