A remarkable year continues for Ibrahim Maalouf, the French-Lebanese trumpeter/composer/international superstar and new GRAMMY nominee bringing trumpet music to the club with a heavy dose of Middle Eastern music. In addition to releasing a new music video for his song “The Pope” featuring rapper D Smoke, the GRAMMY Museum will host a Q&A event with Maalouf and special guest Angelique Kidjo on Thursday, July 27 in Los Angeles, and on July 28 and 29 he’ll be a featured performer at the Quincy Jones 90th birthday tribute concert at the Hollywood Bowl. See below for more details.  

Watch the music video for “The Pope” featuring D Smoke: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRHrCN6W_Zg 

“The Pope” featuring D Smoke is from Maalouf’s latest album Capacity To Love. Maalouf’s 15th studio album is unlike any he’s previously made, and it’s been celebrated by New Yorker, NPR All Things Considered, NY Times, The World, People Magazine and more. Featuring Sharon Stone, Pos from De La Soul, Gregory Porter, Tank and the Bangas and many others, it smashes together an international array of sounds inspired by hip-hop, r&b, and Maalouf’s signature trumpet style.

Maalouf told NPR, "I love hip-hop culture, I love all American culture. You cannot be European, for example, or even a Lebanese person, without having a big part of your culture that is American. Because you watch TV, you watch movies, you listen to pop music. So all this is American influence, no one can deny that." 

Shortly after Capacity To Love was released in November, Maalouf earned his first-ever GRAMMY nomination, for his collaborative album with Angelique Kidjo released last summer: Queen of Sheba. Maalouf and Kidjo discussed the album with Rolling Stone, The Talkhouse, Okay Africa and the Tape Op podcast to name a few, and SPIN said “it may be the most interesting album of the year.” Glide called it “undoubtedly one of the most important world recordings of the year" while WNYC celebrated the project as “ambitious and expressive.” A soaring 7-part suite, the album was inspired by, and reinvents, the myth of Queen Sheba, an African Queen who heard about the reputation of King Salomon and traveled to Jerusalem to witness the king’s wisdom.

Maalouf will discuss his remarkable life and career at the GRAMMY Museum Q&A event, in addition to Capacity To Love, Queen of Sheba, and his first-ever GRAMMY nomination. He’ll head to the Hollywood Bowl the next night to perform alongside the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra conducted by Jules Buckley, Jennifer Hudson, Patti Austin, Angelique Kidjo, Shelea and more, as part of Quincy Jones’ 90th birthday tribute concert. 

July 27: GRAMMY Museum: Spotlight Q&A event with Ibrahim Maalouf and special guest Angelique Kidjo

7:30-9:30 PM 

800 W. Olympic Blvd Downtown Los Angeles 

https://grammymuseum.org/event/spotlight-ibrahim-maalouf/  

July 28 + 29: Quincy Jones’ 90th Birthday Tribute: A Musical Celebration

https://www.hollywoodbowl.com/events/performances/2321/2023-07-28/quincy-jones-90th-birthday-tribute-a-musical-celebration

Hailed as a “virtuoso” by The New York Times, Maalouf has spent his career crossing borders and blurring genres, mixing jazz, pop, classical, electronic, Middle Eastern, and African influences into a cross-cultural swirl. Born in the midst of a deadly civil war, Maalouf escaped Beirut with his family and spent his formative years in France, where he fell in love with music’s power to transcend geography and language. He has performed in 40 countries, sold out arenas from Paris to Istanbul, has been scouted by Quincy Jones and raised millions for charity. In the fall of 2021 he performed on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, introduced by Jon Batiste as “a living legend of jazz” and performed in front of the Eiffel Tower on Bastille Day for an audience of six million.