Aside from working on her own music, Nabihah has hosted a bi-weekly show on NTS Radio since 2013, exploring musical traditions and cultures without boundaries. The success of this show, and the following that Nabihah has built up as a DJ and tastemaker, caught the attention of the BBC and she has frequently appeared on their networks since 2018, presenting shows on BBC Radio 1, Radio 3, Radio 4, 1Xtra, Asian Network, World Service and 6Music. She has also toured extensively around the world, both as a live act and as a DJ; performance highlights include the Tate Modern and Tate Britain, Barbican, Victoria & Albert Museum in London, K11 Art Institute in Shanghai, MoMA PS1 and Brooklyn Museum in New York, Meredith Music Festival in Australia and SXSW in Austin, Texas, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, Glastonbury Festival, Boiler Room, Dekmantel and Sonar among other.
Interdisciplinary projects form an important part of Iqbal's work. She has received several commissions for example to collaborate with Chinese artist Zhang Ding, or from Tate to compose music for the Turner Prize. She has collaborated with Wolfgang Tillmans as part of his Tate Modern exhibition and was also involved in a group performance at the Barbican as part of its major Basquiat retrospective.
1n 2019, Iqbal launched her »Glory To Sound« project at Somerset House in London. She has been curating a series of events (talks, live music, club nights) which explore the reasons why we love music, with guests such as Wolfgang Tillmans, David Olusoga, Gilles Peterson, SOPHIE, and Kassem Mosse. Her work as a curator has led to her being appointed as the Guest Director of Brighton Festival 2023.
Iqbal is also very interested in music from an academic perspective, giving lectures and participating in discussions at the Tate Modern and Tate Britain, the Royal College of Art and the London Documentary Film Festival, plus writing articles for Dazed and Vice. Recently, she presented a documentary on BBC Radio 4 exploring tuning systems from different musical cultures.
Iqbal studied a joint honours BA in History and Ethnomusicology at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), after which she moved to Cambridge to study a postgraduate MPhil focused on South African history. She then moved back to London, where she did a law conversion degree, passed the Bar and simultaneously started getting more involved in throwing parties and making music. She currently sits on the board of trustees for London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), and Hand Of, an arts and education charity dedicated to enriching the education of disadvantaged children and young people in the UK. She is also on the advisory board of Making Tracks, an international music residency programme that explores strategies for music-based environmental engagement.
Dekmantel Podcast 311 - Nabihah Iqbal by dekmantel
Dekmantel Podcast 311 - Nabihah Iqbal by dekmantel