Toronto singer/songwriter Mustafa has signed to Jagjaguwar and will release his first album for the label later this years. While details of that have not been revealed, it will include his 2023 single “Name of God,” and he’s just shared its second single, a lush, acoustic ballad, “Imaan,” featuring backing vocals from Snoh Aalegra.
“‘Imaan’ is a love song between two people in search of God and purpose,” says Mustafa. “It’s about longing for all that we don’t have evidence of. Two Muslims journeying through their love of borderless Western ideology and how it contradicts with the modesty & devotion in which they were raised. ‘Imaan’ sonically represents this tussle too – the Sudanese strings and Egyptian oud woven into the bed American folk chords and drums. This tapestry, this collision is the song, is the romance, is the person Mustafa is. How it’s never enough, or too much. The song sits in the grey that people of faith are afraid to live in, but identify with. It’s about the way faith swings beneath Mustafa and Imaan like a rope. How cultural tension and bias and racism can inform and dismember romance.”
The video for “Imaan” was co-directed by Mustafa and Nabil Elderkin, and features Imaan Hammam and Mona Tougaard, with creative direction from Ramy Youssef.
Watch the “Imaan” and “Name of God” videos below.
Mustafa organized a benefit for Gaza and Sudan relief that happened in January.
