- Amr Diab tops the list, followed by Lebanese singers Nancy Ajram and Elissa
- Egypt dominates the ranking with 46 stars
- The top three celebrities have a combined social media following of over 121.6 million
- Singers, actors, presenters and a composer made it onto the star-studded list
In its latest edition and for the first time ever, Forbes Middle East has ranked 100 Arab celebrities from across the Middle East. The list reveals the region’s favorite personalities based on their length of time in the industry, their influence, and their social media following. Egypt, Lebanon, and Syria lead the ranking, with 46 of the stars coming from Egypt, and 24 calling Lebanon home.
Egyptian singer, Amr Diab, is on top with over 30.6 million followers across his social media platforms. Since he started out over three decades ago, Diab has endorsed some of world’s biggest brands such as Pepsi and Vodafone, and set up his own online store ‘Amr Diab World’.
Diab is followed by two best-selling Lebanese singers, Nancy Ajram and Elissa, with over 48 million and 43 million followers. Nancy became a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF in 2009 and is a popular judge on Arab Idol. She also has a number of brand endorsements under her belt. Elissa—often called the Queen of Romance—has created her own perfumes and is also a talent show judge on X-factor Arabia.
There are three Arab celebrities on the list from the U.A.E.—singers Ahlam Alshamsi and Hussain Al Jassmi, and sports commentator Faris Awad, have a combined social media following of over 40 million. Palestine, Iraq, Yemen and Algeria each have a singer on the list. The combined social media fan following for all the celebrities is over 1 billion. Singers rule the ranking with 51 celebrities, followed by 37 actors and 11 presenters. Adel Emam is the highest ranked actor. The only composer to break the top 100 is Hassan El Shafei.
