XP Music Futures announces first 2025 headliners for Riyadh takeover
First headliners revealed include Zeyne, Shamma Hamdan, Aziz Maraka, Moontalk, Lina Makoul and Bab L’ Bluz for the December 4 to 6 edition
Riyadh’s winter calendar just found its beat. XP Music Futures returns Thursday, December 4 to Saturday, December 6, 2025, marking its fifth year with a citywide celebration of music culture by day and by night.
The first wave of names is out, and it is a smart blend of regional heavy hitters and buzzy global acts: Zeyne, Shamma Hamdan, Aziz Maraka, DJ duo Moontalk, Lina Makoul, and Moroccan-French rockers Bab L’ Bluz. By day the conference gathers artists, execs, and innovators for talks, workshops, and hands-on sessions. After dark, the spotlight flips to label showcases and live sets that champion the Middle East’s rising scene. India steps in as spotlight country for 2025.
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Five years in, XP is framing the programme around its core pillars of talent, scene, impact, and innovation, with a bigger push on community building. Expect signature initiatives to return and level up. HUNNA continues to mentor women in music, while Hearful expands with Arabtone to offer on-site hearing tests and earplugs at both XP and Soundstorm. Sound Futures links startups and investors, the crowd-pleasing competitions PWR CHORD, XPERFORM, and Storm Shaker stage their semi-finals and finals during the conference, and the Artist Management Bootcamp showcases new learnings for future industry leads. XP also renews its strategic partnership with the Saudi Music Commission, aligning policy work and talent incubation with what is happening on the ground.
If you want proof of scale, last year’s edition welcomed 5,130 attendees over three days, hosted 23 partners, packed in 121 daytime sessions, delivered 100 nighttime acts, and brought together 380 speakers from across the global industry. The 2025 brief is simple: go bigger, keep the doors open to new voices, and make the daytime-to-nighttime flow feel like one conversation that spills out into the city. Early-bird tickets are already live on NOFOMO, so round up the crew and block the dates.
Riyadh has spent the last few years building a scene worth flying in for. XP Music Futures is where it all connects.
