Interview: Tawsen on the Release of His Debut Album Chokran
There is something quietly magnetic about Tawsen. He walks into a room with the kind of ease that suggests he has long stopped trying to fit in, and found something far more interesting on the other side of that effort. Born in Italy to Moroccan parents and raised in Belgium, he has built a career out of moving fluidly between cultures, languages, and genres, threading shaabi, soul, pop, rap, and R&B into a sonic palette that is distinctly his own. At 28, he is finally releasing what many have been waiting for.
Chokran, His Debut Album, Is a Thank-You Letter
Tawsen’s debut album Chokran spans 15 tracks and features five collaborations with artists from across the region, including Morocco and Egypt. It marks the most expansive release of his career to date and serves as his first full-length artistic statement. The word itself is deceptively simple. “Chokran was, for me, just an easy word,” he explains. “Everyone knows what chokran means. You don’t have to be Syrian or Moroccan to get it. It’s me showing gratitude, to the fans, to the team, to myself, and also to God. It’s about good, positive energy.” More than a title, it is a declaration of direction.
A Career Born from a Dare
He was the kid humming Adele ballads and Kelly Clarkson hooks during school recesses, until his classmates finally pushed him behind a microphone. What started as a throwaway challenge grew into something he never fully planned for. “I started making music as a joke, and it somehow became my life,” he says, laughing. “Honestly, we didn’t listen to music at home. I didn’t have piano lessons. I wasn’t meant to do this. Sometimes, when I’m on stage singing to a crowd, I still catch myself thinking, what’s happening? How did I get here?”
Yet the music has always known what Tawsen was still figuring out.
Language as Identity, Not as Limitation
In the studio, he first wrote in French, until one day he realized a lyric simply had to come out in Arabic. That impulse gave birth to Babour, his breakout track and his first step into Arabic and Moroccan music. From there, the languages kept multiplying. Arabic, Italian, Darija, Spanish, Dutch, English, sometimes all within the same release. For him, this is not a stylistic gimmick. These shifts are a natural extension of a life lived in the in-between.
That in-between has not always been comfortable. “I’ve experienced this over the past couple of years, where I don’t quite fit into the French industry, but I’m trying to break into the Moroccan Arabic scene. In Europe, they see me as a Moroccan artist. This clash is where the idea started.” Rather than choosing a side, Tawsen turned that tension into an aesthetic.
Two Years of Silence, and What Came After
Despite building serious momentum, Tawsen was effectively locked in an enforced non-compete imposed by a former French label after he tried to leave. For an artist driven by creation, it was a kind of purgatory. “The real reason I disappeared is because I was signed to a French label that was technically against me putting my EPs in Arabic on the covers. They were like, you are in a French market,” he explains.
But the silence did not derail him. “Today, I just feel like, okay, I lost two years in comparison to other artists, but it’s okay. I don’t care. I’m just still doing my thing.” That mindset carried directly into Tawsen Chokran, a record made entirely on his own terms.
Going Independent, Going Moroccan
In 2023 came his first independent release, Zahri, on his own record label SAWT, an acronym for Such a Wonderful Time, which also translates to Voice in Arabic. The single catapulted him to the top charts across the region. He followed it with Ne3ne3 Radio, a five-track project named after mint tea, which he described as Morocco’s most universal ritual. Both projects signaled a clear shift: he was no longer chasing the French market. Going independent gave him the freedom to follow that instinct and take full ownership of both his creative vision and career trajectory.
More Than a Lover-Boy
With Chokran, Tawsen is also quietly rewriting his own image. He is moving away from the romantic lover-boy persona that followed him throughout much of his career. A shift in tone is evident in his collaboration with Egyptian singer Bayou on the track Kayani, a more sensual, confident chapter that reflects his evolution as an artist. The album is rooted in gratitude, but it moves with swagger.
He is not trying to position himself as the Arab world’s next superstar. Rather, he is in it for the personal fulfilment that comes with self-expression, and for giving a voice to the in-betweeners and third-culture kids who grew up like him. For Tawsen, music has always been the one space where belonging nowhere everywhere makes perfect sense.
Tawsen Chokran is available now on all streaming platforms.
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