Anasheed by Abdulqader Qawza

Abdulqader Qawza: the knight of Yemeni nasheed!

He is one of Yemen’s outstanding young talents. He studied media and its arts and learned nasheed in all its forms, and his name quickly rose to prominence among Arab munshids. With his strong stage presence and distinctive vocal timbre, his fans have nicknamed him “the knight of Yemeni nasheed.” He is the young munshid Abdulqader Qawza, born in Yemen in 1985.

Abdulqader Qawza, whose full name is Abdulqader Muhammad Hizam Qawza, grew up in Yemen in a religious family and was raised in a conservative household. As a child, the young munshid showed a keen intelligence and a natural gift: he combined primary school with singing nasheeds, sometimes in the Yemeni dialect and sometimes in Modern Standard Arabic. His family encouraged him, and his teachers and classmates gave him their support.

After successfully completing his primary and secondary education, Abdulqader Qawza enrolled in the Faculty of Media in Sanaa, where he studied for several years and earned a bachelor’s degree in media, majoring in public relations. Before graduating, the young munshid took advantage of his contact with fellow university students to keep developing his talent for nasheed, and he received even more support and a great deal of encouragement.

Alongside his studies and his nasheed career, the young munshid worked on improving himself and honing his talent. He memorized more than two-thirds of the Holy Quran, drew deeply from Arabic and world literature and culture, and practiced various sports such as soccer, shooting and karate. He also took part in educational camps, where he learned the art of independence and the satisfaction of self-reliance.

His unique vocal timbre and his distinctive educational background, among other factors, paved the way for his success in nasheed in the early 1990s with the Al-Yarmouk Nasheed Band. However, the lack of technical and logistical resources in Yemen kept him from reaching a wide audience, which led him to move to Egypt to produce his first album. He achieved this in 1999 with the album he titled “Nour Qalbi,” which was a significant success and drew a wide audience.

This success encouraged him to release another album, “Ila Allah ya Taiba,” in which he displayed a beautiful voice, mastery of performance and a clever choice of lyrics and melodies. Invitations began to pour in from all sides, and he gave nasheed concerts in Arab and Western countries, including Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Bahrain, Russia and Italy. He became a traveling munshid, constantly on the move and never ceasing to create and perform.

Since his debut in the early 1990s, Abdulqader Qawza’s artistic catalog has grown and expanded. In 2001 he took part in the operetta “Ummat al-Milyar” (A Nation of a Billion) alongside a select group of Arab munshids. He has also released a number of albums, including, to name but a few, “Qamari al-Hazin” and “Min Ba’id,” as well as a joint album with the Kuwaiti munshid Ahmed Al-Hajri titled “Hanna al-Fuad.”