Nxdia Tickets

Inspired by pop-punk and the power of community, the non-binary singer shares their stories in pulse-pumping choruses and bilingual verses that thrill and resonate, from Manchester to Cairo.

Nadia Ahmed – Nxdia to fans – was eight when they left Cairo but, from their Arabic-Sudanese heritage to their neighbourhood cinema, they carried the words, the imagery, the memories all the way to their new UK home.

Cutting their teeth on music production with Mercury Prize-shortlisted Mancunians Everything Everything, courtesy of a two-week group programme at Manchester’s Z-arts centre, a teen Nxdia increasingly explored their newfound skills and freedom in social media platforms – a fitting outlet for both self-produced music and musings on identity and race. With its insistent beat and ear-grabbing chorus, tracks like 2021’s ‘Ouch’ first exploded on TikTok, opening space for alternative anthems that fluidly switched between English and Arabic, airing love woes while bridging a gap that, to a young artist growing up between cities, languages and cultures, at times felt impossible to close. In Nxdia’s world, My Chemical Romance and echoes from a childhood on the streets of Cairo is just what comes naturally.

Their 2023 debut EP In the Flesh juggled ‘Dopamine’ and ‘Decay’, switching between pulsing alt-pop refrains and topical themes like an ongoing cost-of-living crisis that gave their music fresh resonance. Yet it was 2024’s ‘She Likes a Boy’, Nxdia’s irresistible queer anthem lamenting a school crush’s misplaced attentions, that reached millions of views, deliciously defying language and gender norms on another plucky brew – and piquing Gen Z fans’ interest in the process. Inspired by the Megan Fox-starring comedy horror and queer classic of the same name, sizzling alt-rocker ‘Jennifer’s Body’ came next to establish Nxdia as a non-binary champion that resonated across the spectrum, especially an Arab queer community that, more often than not, lacked representation – forming part of a loud-and-proud new generation of artists embracing the superpower of their mixed heritage.

Designed to erupt in a live setting, 2025’s ‘Boy Clothes’, channelling Billie Eilish and Wet Leg with an alternative dance twist, and ‘More!’, namechecking London staple Brick Lane while riding an obsessive, feel good beat, are the ace up the musician’s sleeve as they hit UK festivals such as Brighton’s The Great Escape and venues in the capital, and beyond. Dust off your 2000s lexicon and practice your Arabic one-liners, cause you’ll be seeing “more and more and more and more!” of Nxdia.