When Hamza Hawsawi won the X Factor Arabia, he did what was expected of him: signed to Sony Middle East and began working on his debut album. It was the dream — quite literally what he signed up for. But something didn’t feel right.
“We just finished the show and everybody’s expectations were through the roof. Everybody was like, ‘Okay, what’s going to happen next?’” Hawsawi told Gulf News tabloid!.
He felt under pressure to record something, anything, to get people to quieten down — but he wanted to create something timeless. So he left his label and started from scratch.
Two years later, the 25-year-old from Saudi is ready to release something he believes in. His debut single, a smooth R’n’B track dubbed Love a Little, launches online on January 23. Like the rest of his upcoming album, it’s in English.
“I think about the show that I was on and the people who voted. I sang in English to the whole of the Middle East and they pushed me to win. That means whatever I was doing was right somehow, so why change?”
Hawsawi, who recently relocated to Dubai, was season four’s underdog: a gentle soul with a knack for winning hearts. He was up against the region’s answer to One Direction — floppy-haired, square-jawed, doe-eyed The5. Yet he still raked in enough votes to win first place, and to catch the attention of UK-based composer Max Herman.
“I was watching TV one day, I was making some eggs, and I just heard this voice coming off the TV. I was like, ‘What is that? That’s the most incredible voice I’ve ever heard!’” said Herman, who’s 32.
“For me, that was an international sound. The frequencies in Hamza’s voice seem to resonate with people all around the world.”
The young pair, who get along like a house on fire, recorded Love a Little together in London on their first day in the studio.
“There was recently a big YouTube thing about why men should cry. [The song is] kind of like that, as well — a lot of people reserve themselves, but you should just be free with how you feel,” said Herman.
Hawsawi said it’s about having enough sympathy to connect with other people. Fans connected to a teaser posted online.
“I still get the messages that say, ‘Hamza, I don’t understand what you’re saying, but I just feel it.’ I get those messages every day — in fact I got one this morning. A lot of people are like, ‘I have no idea what you’re saying, but I just want this song right now,’” said Hawsawi.
Growing up in Saudi, he was an only child. He would stay up all night watching VHS recordings of cartoons and movies in English and fall asleep at the back of class the next day.
“I would just pause whenever I heard a sentence that I liked and I’d repeat it. I’d just repeat it to sound like whoever was saying it. In my mind, I didn’t want to learn the language — it was just fun to do it,” he said.
He described himself as an “extremely shy and introverted” child, often found eating by himself in the corner.
“I have no brothers or sisters, so that played a big role in that. In school, nobody knew I existed, because I was always in the background. Until the day that a video of me performing on stage surfaced,” he added.
When he was 17, Hawsawi’s mother died of cancer, and he was raised by his aunt. He worked in retail and as a facilities manager at a bank to pay the bills.
Three months before he went on the X Factor, he was training to become a professional Muay Thai martial artist.
“It was crazy, because our coach was like, ‘We’re going to invest in you guys, so whoever has a job: quit it.’ I was excited about it. But then X Factor came along and I was like, ‘Nah, I’m going to do that. I’m going to sing.’”
Despite the bumps along the way, Hawsawi has a lot to look forward to — including a 26th birthday on January 25 and a debut album made on his own terms. He’s nothing if not optimistic.
“If you have a dream, chase it,” he said. “That’s it. If it wasn’t true, it wouldn’t have turned into a cliche.”
