Artists like Natacha Atlas

Souad Massi is an Algerian Berber singer, songwriter and guitarist. She began her career performing in the Kabyle political rock band Atakor, before leaving the country following a series of death threats. In 1999, Massi performed at the Femmes d'Algérie concert in Paris, which led to a recording contract with Island Records.

Cesária Évora GCIH was a Cape Verdean singer known for singing morna, a genre of music from Cape Verde, in her native Cape Verdean Creole. Her songs were often devoted to themes of love, homesickness, nostalgia, and the history of the Cape Verdean people. She was known for performing barefoot and for her habit of smoking and drinking on stage during intermissions. Évora's music received many accolades, including a Grammy Award in 2004, and it has influenced many Cape Verde diaspora musicians as well as American pop singer Madonna. Évora is also known as Cize, the Barefoot Diva, and the Queen of Morna.

Nouhad Wadie Haddad, known professionally as Fairuz, is a Lebanese singer. She is widely considered an iconic vocalist and one of the most celebrated singers in the Arab world, as well as a symbol of modern Lebanon. She is popularly known as "The Bird of the East", "The Cedar of Lebanon", "The Moon's Neighbor", "The Voice of Lebanon", and "Our Ambassador to the Stars", among others.

Talvin Singh is a British tabla player, musician, producer, and composer. Singh is associated with the Asian Underground movement. His debut album, OK (1998), won the Mercury Music Prize in 1999. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2014 Birthday Honours for services to music and received the Ivor Novello Award for Innovation at the 2022 Ivor Composer Awards.

Mohamed Khelifati, better known by his stage name Cheb Mami, is an Algerian raï musician and singer-songwriter. He sings and speaks in Algerian Arabic and sometimes in Eastern Arabic dialects or in French. Internationally, he is known for contributing vocals to the 1999 Sting single "Desert Rose".

Azam Ali is an Iranian musician. She has released music as a solo artist as well as with the bands VAS, Roseland, and Niyaz.

Omer Faruk Tekbilek is a Turkish musician and composer who plays a wide range of wind, string, percussion, and electronic instruments. He has developed a style that builds on traditional Sufi music while incorporating inspiration from ambient electronic musicians, most notably Brian Keane. He is best known for his performances with the flute-like ney, but also plays the piccolo-like kaval, and the double-reed zurna. Among stringed instruments, he plays the oud and the bağlama.

Les Négresses Vertes, formed in 1987, is a French music group that combines world music and some aspects of alternative rock. Tracks often feature acoustic guitar and accordion, with some containing other traditional instruments such as piano and brass.