For Dana Salah, formerly known as Arab Pop-Indie artist King Deco, there were boundless expectations of who she needed to be as an artist. “Being an Arab-Muslim artist, people have certain expectations of what that needs to look like or what you need to say,” she admits. But for Dana, having been born and raised in the Middle East, and living a significant amount of her adult life in the US, Dana constantly challenged what it meant to be an Arab female artist who was making music that represented her authentic self as opposed to the stereotypical expectations of Arab female artists. Against the odds, when Dana moved to the U.S. for college, and upon graduating, she turned to the neighborhoods of Brooklyn, and started making music, DJ’ing and founded her artistry as King Deco. Having collaborated with A-list talent from Larzz Principato (Halsey’s “New Americana”) to Kinetics & One Love (B.o.B’s “Airplanes” and Melanie Martinez’s “Dollhouse”), her music has earned praise from Billboard, Nylon, Wonderland, Idolator with her debut single “Castaway (Don’t Leave ME)” on indie Local Legend/12-Hundred record label.

Reconciling her Arab identity with being a pop singer who sang in English and Arabic is about being true to herself, and her belief in the universality of music. Her identity as a cultural hybrid always meant that she had a deep desire to connect with other people. As important as it is for people to connect to her music, she uses her music to connect to people, their stories, and their identities. “I don’t speak Spanish, but I will sing in Spanish. I don’t speak French, but I want to sing in French,” Dana says. 

Coming off the success of her single “Castaway,” where the opening tracks tell the tale of a songstress leaving her homeland, Dana has directed her journey back to the Middle East. After spending most of 2020 in Michigan, the heart of Arab-America, she found herself reconnecting to her roots and surrendering herself to her Arab identity. “One of the most difficult tasks as an artist is that you’re looking to tell the world who you are. But who you are is constantly changing,” she says. As King Deco, “I was writing songs about female empowerment but was an ocean away from the women who were most important to me, like the group of girls I had grown up with and who had always respected and supported my path.” Changing her name from King Deco, to Dana Salah, is reflective of an artist who is reclaiming her name, her language and taking ownership of being an Arab-Muslim female artist. With that, she hopes that her music will demand more space for Arab women to take control of their voice and tell their truth as artists. For Dana, making Arabic music is also about empowering Arab artists to embrace their culture and not shy away from it. “So often, we’ve believed that we have to adapt our sound to others to be taken seriously or to be heard. But that is changing and I certainly want to be a part of that,” she says. 

She might just be the goddess pop’s been looking for.