Dunia Batma

Dounia Batma (born 1 April 1991) is a Moroccan singer and actress who became popular by finishing second in the first season of Arab Idol (the Arabic version of Pop Idol) on MBC. She lost the title to the Egyptian contestant Carmen Suleiman.

Born and raised in Hay Mohammadi, in the Aïn Sebaâ-Hay Mohammadi district of Casablanca, she is the daughter of Hamid Batma, who played in several bands, including Mesnawa and Nass El Ghiwane. Her uncle Laarbi Batma leads the Moroccan fusion group Nass El Ghiwane, which Martin Scorsese regards as "the Rolling Stones of Africa". After secondary school, she studied tourism. In 2010, at the age of 18, inspired by her older cousin Khansa Batma, who was already famous (daughter of Mohamed Batma), she took part in Studio 2M, a Moroccan music competition broadcast on 2M TV, in the oriental category. She sang pieces from the Moroccan and Middle Eastern repertoires and reached the semi-finals without making it to the final.

She then released the single "Aalash Tgheeb" (Why are you hiding?), in Moroccan Arabic, which did not meet with great success. Aware that she would need to go further to build the career she hoped for, she turned to Arab Idol, a fine platform for reaching the hearts of the Arab world.