Wegz

Wegz (ويجز; born Ahmed Ali Shahat (أحمد علي شحات); 11 September 1998) is an Egyptian rapper, singer-songwriter, and actor. Raised in the Al Wardian neighbourhood of Alexandria, he is widely credited with bringing Egyptian trap music and Arabic hip hop into the mainstream of the Arab music industry. His music blends Western trap and hip hop with Egyptian Mahraganat, Shaabi folk music, R&B, and Afrobeats. Wegz first gained national attention with the 2018 single "TNT" and broke into wider Arab mainstream consciousness with the 2020 single "Dorak Gai" (دورك جي, "You're Next"), which accumulated more than 24 million YouTube views within two months of release. In 2022, his crossover single "El Bakht" (البخت, "Luck") peaked at number 14 on the Billboard Billboard Arabia Hot 100 and was named the most-streamed song in the Arab world that year. He has been the most-streamed artist in Egypt on Spotify for three consecutive years (2020, 2021, and 2022), and in December 2022 was named Spotify's most-streamed Arab artist across the MENA region. Ahmed Ali Shahat was born on 11 September 1998 in Alexandria, Egypt, and grew up in the working-class Al Wardian (الورديان) neighbourhood. His father's roots are from Luxor in Upper Egypt, though some Arabic-language sources also note Yemeni ancestry on his paternal side. Because his father's work required the family to move frequently, he attended multiple schools as a child, a circumstance he has credited with developing his outgoing personality and ability to form friendships quickly. In a 2022 interview on the Arabic programme AB Talks, Wegz spoke about growing up with limited financial means, sometimes having only 20 to 50 Egyptian pounds per day to spend. He has cited his early love of reading and writing as a formative influence on his lyrical approach. He completed his higher education at the El-Agami Higher Institute of Management Sciences in Alexandria. After graduating, he briefly worked at a telecommunications company before leaving to pursue a full-time career in music. The stage name "Wegz" was given to him by a close friend. In interviews he has said he does not know the meaning of the name and that he regrets never having asked. Wegz began releasing music in 2017. His first track on Spotify was "Batalo Fake" (بطلوا فيك, "Stop Being Fake"), a collaboration with rapper Hesham Raptor (Hesham Hassan), which is considered one of the early recordings of the Egyptian underground trap wave.