'Hello you': UAE-Israeli song takes YouTube by storm

Emirati artist Walid Aljasim has clocked more than 1.1 million YouTube views.

The scene cuts from Dubai to Tel Aviv, the lyrics switch from Arabic to Hebrew to English and the song is a slightly kitsch electro-pop duet by artists who, for now, remain apart.

The normalisation of ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates has produced its first musical collaboration: "Ahlan Bik", or "Hello you" in Arabic.

"This is a historic moment," said Israeli singer Elkana Marziano, whose duet with Emirati artist Walid Aljasim has clocked more than 1.1 million YouTube views since it was posted on September 30.

Marziano, 28, is a former winner of Israel's version of The Voice, a singing competition TV show, and an Arabic speaker influenced by the Mizrahi culture of Jews from the Arab world.

He told AFP that he and Aljasim had collaborated over the Zoom video-conferencing service, with some parts of the song recorded in Dubai and others in Israel.

"The understanding was immediate," Marziano said of the partnership.

One online commentator, who posted under the name Shaked Sharon, said: "With this song, you feel the new Middle East."

In August, Israel and the UAE announced that they had reached a US-brokered deal to normalise ties, following years of discreet economic and security cooperation.

Israel's parliament, the Knesset, approved the UAE deal on Thursday. Bahrain ultimately joined the pact known as the Abraham Accords signed at the White House last month, making it and the UAE the third a fourth Arab states to establish full diplomatic ties with Israel.

Israel signed a peace agreement with neighbouring Egypt in 1979 and with Jordan in 1994.