Nabihah Iqbal

Artist

Nabihah Iqbal
Agent

Eleanor McGuinness
Based

London, UK

Nabihah Iqbal’s artistry weaves between shoegaze, dream pop and electronics, and she creates her own musical world into which the listener is transported. Her last two albums, ‘DREAMER’ and ‘Weighing of the Heart’, were released via Ninja Tune, to worldwide critical acclaim. She has toured extensively, performing to sold-out audiences around the globe, and has appeared at festivals such as Glastonbury, SXSW, Green Man and Sydney Music Festival, to name a few. A new album is on the way…

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Nabihah Iqbal

As a music artist, Nabihah Iqbal has made her prolific work rate look effortless with a resume as varied as her creative output.

She studied an undergraduate degree in History and Ethnomusicology at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, before going on to do an M.Phil in History at Cambridge. After this, she pursued law, passed the Bar and whilst being on the path towards a fully fledged law career, her profound passion for music pulled her in another direction (much to her parents’ dismay at the time).

Her 2023 album ‘DREAMER’ garnered huge critical acclaim internationally from the likes of the Guardian, the Washington Post, the Observer, The Quietus and 10 Magazine. She has toured around the world extensively, playing shows across Europe, North and South America, Africa,
Asia and Australasia. Performance highlights include Glastonbury Festival in the UK, Sydney Festival, the K11 Art Institute in Shanghai and the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. She has also had the pleasure of performing at London’s landmark cultural institutions: the Royal Albert Hall,
both the Tate Modern and Tate Britain, the Barbican, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Serpentine.

Nabihah is one of the longest-running resident DJs on the seminal London radio station NTS, and she has appeared frequently across the BBC, having presented shows on Radio 1, Radio 3, Radio 4, 6Music, and the World Service. Nabihah also hosts a monthy show on New York City’s
The Lot Radio, and through her radio work and energetic club and festival sets, she has carved out a unique space for herself as a DJ who explores music made for dancing, defying boundaries of genre, geography and history.

Nabihah has DJed at major festivals around the world including Glastonbury, We Out Here, Gala and WOMAD in the UK; Dekmantel, Worldwide, Nuits Sonores, and Dimensions in the EU; Meredith and Dark Mofo in Australasia; Oasis and Search Festivals in Africa; and at MoMA
PS1 Warm-Up, Making Time, and Pop Montreal Festivals in North America. Throughout he career so far, Nabihah has also DJed at some of the world’s most iconic nightclubs including Berghain in Berlin, Printworks and Fabric in London, Nowadays and Public Records in NYC,
Shelter in Shanghai, O-East in Tokyo, Paloma in Barelona, and Warehouse Project in Manchester.

In March 2025, Nabihah Iqbal premiered her first classical composition entitled ‘What Psyche Felt’, in front of a sold-out show at the Southbank Centre: she was commissioned to compose a piece for string quartet by the renowned Manchester Collective. In May 2026, she premiered her
second classical composition, a 40-min piece for string quartet and electronics, which was commissioned by the Goodwood Art Foundation. This marks the beginning of an exciting new musical direction, straddling both the electronic and classical worlds.

Aside from focusing on her music and radio, Nabihah’s artistic output has a strong inter-disciplinary focus and she has collaborated with Chinese artist Zhang Ding, been commissionedto compose music for the Turner Prize, collaborated with Wolfgang Tillmans as part of his Tate
Modern exhibition and was involved in a group performance at the Barbican as part of its major Basquiat retrospective. She has also contributed to Serpentine’s recent book ‘140 Artists’ ideas for Planet Earth’, edited by Hans Ulrich Obrist and has given guest lectures at the Royal College
of Art. She has also contributed to podcasts for Bloomberg, the Serpentine and the Art Fund.

In 2023 Nabihah was appointed as guest director of England’s largest multi-arts festival, Brighton Festival, her “biggest, most challenging and exciting curatorial position” to date. As someone who appreciates art and music in all its forms, and the way in which creativity brings people
together, Nabihah’s work often takes on the role of ‘curator’. She has been invited to take on curate events at the Whitechapel Gallery, Somerset House, Art Night Dundee and the Open City Documentary Festival for instance, bringing together artists and collaborators from her
creative world.

Nabihah also runs a platform and event series called ‘Glory To Sound’, which takes on various forms such as live performances, talks and discussions, and club nights. As part of this series, she has interviewed important cultural figures such as the historian David Olusoga and the poet-
musician Linton Kwesi Johnson, music producer SOPHIE and TV presenter Anita Rani.

Nabihah sits on the board of trustees at the Institute of Contemporary Art, London and also for Hand Of, a UK-based charity that provides musical education for disadvantaged children.

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Nabihah Iqbal