Emirates NBD stages the first female Al Azi in 250 years — Dubai Lynx Glass Grand Prix

Emirates NBD gives the 250-year-old Al Azi tradition its first female performer; the tribute wins the Dubai Lynx 2023 Glass Grand Prix.

Emirates NBD · Leo Burnett Middle East & North Africa

创意是什么Give the 250-year-old male-only Al Azi poetry its first female performer — a woman's voice leading a chanting male chorus makes 'first time ever' the message itself.伤筋动骨

当时的题目

Emirates NBD, a leading MENAT bank, wanted an International Women's Day tribute to Emirati women for Expo 2020 Dubai. Leo Burnett Dubai proposed reviving Al Azi — an oral poetry form performed by men for over 250 years — and putting a woman at its head for the first time.

它是怎么成立的

Emirates NBD wanted its International Women's Day moment at Expo 2020 Dubai to feel local rather than imported. Leo Burnett Dubai's answer was Al Aziya: a live performance in which Dubai poet Al Hanouf Mohammed became the first woman in over 250 years to publicly perform in the tradition of Al Azi, the Emirati oral poetry of honour, valour and achievement that men have chanted for generations.

The idea was deliberately not a reproduction. Al Hanouf wrote a new 'fusion poetry' inspired by Al Azi — her strong solo voice punctuated by a chorus of Emirati men chanting in unison behind her — so the work stayed rooted in heritage while being something never heard before: a woman's voice at the head of the tradition.

The performance took place on International Women's Day (8 March 2022) at Expo 2020 Dubai, was released through Emirates NBD's Instagram and was covered as a campaign spotlight by regional and international ad press. Emirates NBD CMO Moadh Bukhash framed it as 'simple and elegant yet bold and powerful' — a nod to the past that celebrates today.

A year later the work won the Grand Prix in 'Glass: The Award for Change' at Dubai Lynx 2023, the category honouring creativity that drives change on issues like gender equality. Al Hanouf herself described the moment as something that 'has never been done before' — the campaign's entire case rested on making that first time happen.

妙在哪

The creative act was a cultural first, not a media stunt: a woman leading a 250-year-old male art form on a global stage.
Instead of importing Western empowerment tropes, the campaign spoke in the UAE's own cultural language, so the message could not be accused of being foreign or generic.
The male chorus turning from performers to supporters dramatized equality inside the tradition itself — men backing, not owning, the voice.
One live performance generated a durable asset: a film that carried the brand's values through a year of award circuits.

做出来什么

Al Hanouf became the first Emirati woman in 250+ years to publicly perform the Al Azi-derived form, and the campaign won the Dubai Lynx 2023 Grand Prix in 'Glass: The Award for Change', the festival's category for work driving gender equality and cultural change.

可以借走的

Find the voice absent from a tradition and give it the stage: a cultural first — a woman leading a male art form — says more about a brand's values than any slogan.

后来

Al Aziya won the Dubai Lynx 2023 Grand Prix in Glass: The Award for Change, the festival's category for culture-shifting creativity on issues like gender equality. The same cycle saw Emirates NBD shortlisted in three audio categories for a separate National Day campaign, the UAE Space Anthem. The film remains in industry award galleries and is cited as an example of heritage-rooted brand storytelling. For Al Hanouf Mohammed it established a first that never happened in the tradition's 250-year history; for the bank, it turned a date tribute into lasting brand culture.

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