The Aga Khan Music Programme has named 22 finalists for the 2025 Aga Khan Music Awards, selected from more than 300 nominees across 16 countries.
Winners will be announced on 4 November 2025 and honored on 22 November at London’s Southbank Centre, the centerpiece of a four-day festival (20–23 November) presented with the EFG London Jazz Festival. A $500,000 prize fund will be shared among the laureates.
Established in 2018 by Prince Karim Aga Khan IV and Prince Amyn Aga Khan, the Awards recognize exceptional achievement across musical cultures shaped by Islam. They also celebrate work that sustains and reinvents tradition while fostering spiritual insight, social cohesion, and cultural resilience. Governance now sits with an Advisory Council co-chaired by Prince Rahim Aga Khan and Prince Amyn Aga Khan, and the Awards remain open to individuals, ensembles, and organizations regardless of gender, geography, religion, or nationality.
This year’s cohort ranges from internationally active artists to revered local tradition-bearers. Notable finalists include Mohi Bahauddin Dagar, a twentieth-generation exponent of dhrupad; master balafon player Mamadou Diabaté, who preserves the Sambla balafon language through teaching in Burkina Faso and abroad; gnawa maâlem Hamid El Kasri, known for collaborations with Joe Zawinul, Snarky Puppy, and Jacob Collier; and Lebanese buzuq innovator Farah Kaddour, whose projects serve communities displaced by war or extreme poverty.
Beyond cash awards, winners may receive commissions, recording opportunities, management support, and backing for education and preservation initiatives, aligning with the Aga Khan Music Programme’s wider mission to advance pluralism and understanding through music.
More information at aga-khan-music-programme
Author: World Music Central News Room
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