Medina is a Swedish hip hop duo formation with Arabic influences made up of Swedish artists of Tunisian descent, being Sam-E (born Sami Daniel Rekik), a former professional football player in Tunisia and Alibi (born Ali Jammali). Sam-E is also of Finnish descent as his mother is Finnish.

Career

The two started making music in 2003 under the name Medina after they met in

Knivsta Knivsta is a locality and the seat of Knivsta Municipality, Uppsala County, Sweden with 19,765 inhabitants. Geography The town sits on the Stockholm-Uppsala railway 48 km north from Stockholm and 18 km south from Uppsala, and has a s ...

promoting a special genre they called "Haffla music" with rhythm from the

Arab World The Arab world ( ar, اَلْعَالَمُ الْعَرَبِيُّ '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, refers to a vast group of countries, mainly located in Western A ...

mixed with hip hop. Their debut release was mixtape/album ''Rumble in Fiskayyet'' and the resulting single "Magdansös". They followed up with a series of albums, ''Fullblod'', ''7 dar'', ''Mosh Normal'', ''Hayat'' and ''Sista Minuten''. Their single "Miss Decibel" from the album ''Sista Minuten'' reached number 2 on

Sverigetopplistan Sverigetopplistan (, lit. "the Sweden top list") is the Swedish national record chart, formerly known as Topplistan (1975–1997) and Hitlistan (1998–2007) and known by its current name since October 2007, based on sales data from the Swedish R ...

, the official Swedish Singles Chart. They have also released series of 4 mixtapes under the title ''Varsågod de e gratis'' and two volumes in the series ''Haffla Music''. Sami Rekik of the duo took part in

Melodifestivalen 2021 Melodifestivalen 2021 was the 61st edition of the Swedish music competition Melodifestivalen. The competition was organised by Sveriges Television (SVT) and took place over a six-week period between 6 February and 13 March 2021. Due to the impac ...

in collaboration with WAHL with the song "90-talet". Medina reunited to enter

Melodifestivalen 2022 2022 was the 62nd edition of the Swedish music competition Melodifestivalen, which was organised by (SVT) and took place over a six-week period between 5 February and 12 March 2022. The winner of the competition was Cornelia Jakobs with the so ...

with the song "In i dimman" and qualified for the final from Heat 4. At the final on 12 March 2022, they gained 109 points and finished in 3rd place.

Solo projects

Ali Jammali

Ali Jammali collaborated with G Mansour co-writing 10 of the rappers 16-track album ''The Cage''. He alsor recorded and produced the track alongside Sami Rekik in the Medina Studios.

Sami Rekik

Sam-E has released his own solo releases including the album ''Om ni ba Wuisste'' and collaborated with other artists including with OIAM in "Avundsjuka", a charting hit on

. He has also collaborated with

SödraSidan Christopher Wahlberg (born 10 December 1985) is a Swedish singer and songwriter. In SödraSidan He is known as a member of the hip hop duo SödraSidan. The band was established as Dalenbarn in 2009 as a duo of two childhood friends Daniel Jutte ...

, Alpis, Petter,

Anis Don Demina Anis Don Demina (; born Anis Dhahir 25 April 1993) is a Swedish singer, songwriter, musician and DJ. Early life His Kurdish father, an auto mechanic, fled from the Gulf War to Russia where he met Anis's Belarusian mother, a pianist and musi ...

Elias Abbas Elias Abbas (born 1 December 2001) is a Swedish singer. Abbas participated in Melodifestivalen 2018 with the song "Mitt Paradis". In 2017, he released his debut single "Min Queen". In February 2019, he released a new single along with Anis Don De ...

and many others. In 2021, Sami Rekik under the mononym SAMI took part in

with the song "90-talet" alongside member of duo SödraSidan Christopher Wahlberg under the stage name WAHL. The duo performed their song on 13 February 2021 during the second semi-final of the qualification round for

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...

for representing Sweden in Eurovision. WAHL featuring SAMI, the song came 6th of 7 acts during the night failing to qualify to the final or the Second Chance. However their song has charted in

, the official Swedish Singles Chart.

Discography

Albums

Mixtapes

*2004: ''Rumble in Fiskayyet'' *2004: ''Varsågod de e gratis Vol 1'' (free album online in 2005) *2009: ''Varsågod de e gratis Vol. 2'' *2010: ''Haffla Music Vol. 1'' *2010: ''Varsågod de e gratis Vol. 3'' *2011: ''Varsågod de e gratis Vol. 4'' *2011: ''Haffla Music Vol. 2'' *2012: ''Svarta tårar''

Singles

Notes

Discography: Ali Jammali

Albums

;as songwriter *2010: ''The Cage'' (by G Mansour)Discogs: G Mansour - The Cage page
/ref> **Ali Jammali co-wrote 10 tracks from the 16-track album **All tracks recorded and mixed by Ali Jammali & Sami Rekik at Medina Studios

Mixtapes

;Solo as Alibrorsh *2010: ''Parabol Paradis''

Discography: Sami Rekik

(using various names, mainly Sam-E, but also the mononym Sami (SAMI))

Albums

*''Om ni ba Wuisste''

Singles

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Medina Swedish hip hop groups Swedish musical duos Hip hop duos Swedish-language singers Melodifestivalen contestants